The Unexpected survivor
by Rola G
Summary: Currently being rewritten.
1. Chapter 1

Hi everyone

Its my second story

I originally wanted to write this one first, but wanted to was The last: Naruto the movie first before I wrote this.

Let me know if there's any mistakes in my writing, and if anyone wants to add ideas here and there I'm more than willing to take opinions.

Enjoy

I don't own Naruto

* * *

Prologue

"Hah, Hah, Hah"

Was the sound that could be heard in the forest filled with trees on this rainy evening; she was being chased.

She had left her kids in a safe place while going out to hunt for food. All of a sudden it had started to rain. Originally she was going to wait it out (the kids were deep sleepers, therefore wouldn't worry), when she heard footsteps. It kept getting closer and closer, until she felt that a shuriken hit her arm. With realization that she was a target, she began to run through the trees in order to gain some distance.

"Hah, Hah, Hah" she almost had the location she wished to engage, when another of those shurikens hit her left shoulder.

"Ugh" almost losing her grasp on her chakra, she sprinted the rest of the way to the open field.

Arriving, she waited for them to show up. Shurikens and other weapons were thrown. She just dogged it with ease.

"Come on out, what do you want from me" came the loud voice.

"It's nothing personal really, just if you were to know of his desire, you would warn them and take our element of surprise from us" responded one of the ten men that were faced before her.

"…"Confusion at first clouded her face, then realization, "it's him isn't it? He still wants revenge after all these years?" she responded with understanding.

"Now, now, if you simply chose to agree and help out, then all of this would be stopped. Hell it doesn't make any difference to me, I just as much want to see them suffer the same way he does. Since we share similar, a willingness to work together will take place. Just say yes and you will be spared." Smiling, lifting his hand up.

"I refuse, it's not my business, nor do I hold them responsible for any reason on what happened. It was a long time ago and getting revenge won't turn back the clock." She spat out.

"Then die" Throwing his hand down, the men went for the attack.

Despite being hit twice, her wounds were slowly healing. She went into her clan's taijustu and proceeded to attack.

They fought like bandits, with minor skill in sword wielding. Apart from some slashes, they were knocked out.

It honestly wasn't much of a fight with the first nine men.

"Well you're far more skillful than given credit, but you won't be able to stop me" The man stated. At this point she was starting to get dizzy from the blood coming out of her wounds. The men were able to get a couple more injuries on her.

"Heh" She couldn't help but laugh. After believing that she and her kids could live peacefully, it was going to end here. A picture of their smiles was forming in her head, and how happy when she said they were visiting a village festival soon.

'No, I can't let myself die, until I let the kids know of the situation'. That's right, she had to at least survive until she can tell her kids their new destination and warn them of the posing threat.

"Ahhhh" Just before the sword could swiftly slash at her; she unleashed her chakra chains, and wrapped it around him.

"Nani?" Surprised, he began trying to free himself, and began to panic when he realized he couldn't get free.

"Sorry, but I can't die yet, and just so you know, it's your own lack of wanting to let go that led you to your death"

Just as she stated this, she picked up the sword of one of the fallen men, and stabbed him through the heart.

" He's…'cough'….Going to….send more…..until he's stopped…..heh", with his final breath, he grinned.

"Hah, hah, hah", now that the fight was over, she slowly made her way towards her small home. She had to warn them, and tell them how to get there before she collapsed.

'I guess this is the type of person I am just before I die heh' she couldn't help but smile as she continued to slowly reach her destination.

A memory began to form from years ago:

* * *

Flashback 10 years ago

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" a girl of yet teen asked.

"You may" An older teen responded.

"Sorry if this sounds weird, but are you afraid of death"?

Raising an eyebrow at the unexpected question, he asks, "why the curiosity"?

Hesitantly, she comes out with it, "well, we are trained to fight, to protect, to kill, but were never told really how one fights death every day, and I don't why, but I can't help that even if I now don't fear death, I might when I'm out there. I don't want to die with regrets I guess is what I'm saying. After my Kaachan died, I realized, even if I can live long, my profession makes it hard to and I don't want to hate myself, I want to be the type of person I can be proud of."

First of surprise, then a smile came to his face, "it looks like we are not that different, even if our paths that we follow are". It wasn't one of his smirks, or fake smiles, but a real sad one.

The girl couldn't help but blush in embarrassment.

"I believe one doesn't know the type of person they are, until just before they are about to die. I guess the life flashes before your eyes can help in this discussion." His answer was not what she was expecting.

"So you're not sure now"?

"Well, perhaps I have an inkling of which I am, but ultimately near death is when you know who you are by what action, though, and feeling you feel near the end."

* * *

Flashback end

'Who would have thought that he would be right in the end 'she thought as tears began to form in her eyes. She missed him, and was thinking how she'll see him soon.

Not far now was her home, just a few more steps.

Steps were suddenly heard, and she froze. No longer could she stand, she just leaned back on the tree as she slid down.

Just as the sounds stopped, she raised her head to see a figure with the most familiar appearance that she could never forget. He looked so much like him that shock was written on her face.

'It can't be' she thought to herself as her conscious began to leave her, with only capable of whispering a single word.

"…Itachi".

* * *

And that a wrap

Now to not get anyone confused, I'll be introducing a new character into this story, who you will have guessed, knows Itachi.

I bet you can guess who she saw before collapsing

well although I will be working towards getting Sasuke and Sakura together in this story, It won't be too much about them as this character and her role in this story.

Critics, here is where you come in please let me know

Cheers


	2. Chapter 2

Hi Guys

I know it took longer than it should have, but I haven't gotten onto a computer until just now in order to post this up.

It took awhile since I kept catching my grammer mistakes on this chapter.

If you guys find any other things I can work on please let me know

here it is

I don't own Naruto

* * *

Chapter 1

It has been two years since the fourth shinobi war ended, and two months since the moon was stopped from destroying earth. All five hidden villages have formed an alliance and peace seemed to finally be around. Everyone was just enjoying their lives in their villages as laughter and music can be heard; well not everyone. One man, who now was halfway through the fire land, had been traveling for the past two years and two months since the fourth shinobi war had ended. His name was Sasuke Uchiha. He had desired to travel with the hopes of viewing the world differently than he once had. Ever since he was seven, hatred had been the only thing he could see. Once he broke out that hatred, he wished to travel to the places that he had seen, but to see it in a new light.

Asides from the fact hatred was no longer part of his life; he also seemed to truly wish to atone for his sins. While now one of the saviors of the shinobi world, he was once probably one of the high S class criminals out there. It was so bad that he almost killed his own teammates. Only one constantly tried to help him, one constantly fought him, and one who he truly believed was not capable of hating when he gave him every reason to. His name was Naruto Uzumaki. If it wasn't for his friend he would, with no question, still be in a world where hatred was his way.

He was now traveling through fire land to finally head back home and deal what have been on hold for too long; Hidden village of the leaf.

He originally had decided to just travel for the rest of his life in order to atone for his sins, until a few days after stopping the meteorite from destroying Konoha he heard Sakura Haruno had been kidnapped. It started with someone trying to frame him, and while he didn't particularly care as it had held no interest to him, the moment he heard about Sakuras abduction his body moved on its own. The last time he had seen her was before leaving the village, while poking her in the head with a heart full thank you. He had promised he would return one day. After dealing with the situation, and making sure she hadn't seen him, for those two months he began visiting those that he had met during his time with team 7. His last travel had taken him to the land of waves; their first C-rank mission. It had been five years since he saw Inari and his family. He was surprised by the amount of genuine greeting he got from them, and heard their story, including the one that they helped Konoha rebuild after the Pein attack. Sasuke couldn't help but feel both amused and touched on how Naruto had described his situation. Basically Naruto just stated that they had a major argument and fight, and then he just left. While it was all true, he was unable to help the smirk that came across his face. They also told him that Naruto was planning to bring him back and fix the situation again. If that wasn't the most ironic thing, he couldn't describe what was.

"I know back in the day you guys would constantly fight, but even I could see that all three of you truly loved each other's company. Go back and fix things. Even if it's hard at first, it will be fine in the end. I mean compared to how Land of waves was before Gato was defeated, saying sorry and trying to be friends again should be easy right?" was Inari's honest response. Even though he didn't know the full story, his words weren't off, and with reluctance, he decided that it was time to go back home and see if he could truly be accepted as a comrade by the village. Something else was also starting to make it apparent after a side comment, with some snickering, was stated by Inari.

"I recall that Sakura had a crush on you when you guys were still young, while Naruto-ni-san had a crush on her. I thought at first it was a love triangle between you three, but Naruto-ni-san's expression was different than back then. I guess he's gotten over her and now he just flirts with her for the fun of it"

While showing no reaction from the outside, he felt envy. While Sakura showed she still loved him, even asking to come with him for a second time; he was not sure how to respond to her feelings. When they met before he went to Orocimaru, she had confessed that she loved him and asked to come with him. Knowing she was too loyal to the village, and still having feelings of comradeship with her, he went behind her, thanked her, and knocked her out. He didn't even realize that apart from his appreciation towards her that he may feel something else. Back then revenge was all he was focused on. Inari stated that Naruto doesn't think of her that way anymore, however it has been two years now and possibilities can always happen. It was probably one of the reasons to return back to his home; to finally learn to enjoy his teammates company, and see how he truly feels for Sakura. Even if he couldn't admit it back then, there's no doubt he always treated her differently than others after becoming genin shortly. He isn't use to expressing himself so he knew this would be a great challenge once he reaches the gates and attempts at actually living there. It's been five years, not counting during the war, since he actually lived there.

While walking, it had begun to rain. It didn't truly matter to Sasuke as he had traveled through blazing heat and snow storms.

'Perhaps if I see a home I can ask for some shelter, I don't think walking all night in the rain would be such a smart plan' that and the fact was he felt tired from the amount of pondering it took to finally convince himself to return home.

While thinking this he suddenly heard a noise. He paused, and carefully activated his eyes while focusing solely on the sound.

'Sounds like blades clashing against each other' was his thought process. The sound was from the left and he began to run in that direction.

As he got closer to the location, he realized that the sound had stopped. It didn't sound like it was a long fight. 'Perhaps it was just some friendly spar' while this came to mind, he was faced with the scene of ten dead men. From the looks of things they looked like nothing more than bandits, with one dressed as an actual shinobi. A sword was in his body where his heart should have been. In front of the man were drops of blood that were slowly getting washed away from the rain.

As he followed the blood trail, he started to realize that once he caught up to this person they will need medical attention, something he was unfamiliar with besides first aid kit.

'I guess if I find this person still alive, I should contact Konoha and see if they can summon a medical ninja'.

While thinking this, he finally realized he caught up with the person. It turned out to be a woman with red, long hair, fair skin, and her eyes were violet. She was pretty cut up from the battle beforehand; by her appearance made him come to the conclusion that she was indeed a ninja.

He was about to offer help when he suddenly saw her eyes widen with shock ridden on her face and her mouth hanging open. He was about to ask what was wrong, until he froze with shock as he heard the quiet word she whispered that he hadn't heard in twos years before she passed out "…Itachi".

* * *

Well how was the second one.

I know it's more introduction, but for the characters that I want in this story it must be done.

I used a character in the anime to describe the women Sasuke had just found.

I will explain her a bit in the next chapter so you guys can guess which character I used.

Don't worry the mystery women will be revealed, along with other surprises in the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone

Here is the next chapter, which I am starting to get real excited on how the story is going to be.

Let me know if I made any mistakes anywhere

I do not own Naruto

* * *

Chapter 2

" _Kaa-san" came the squeaking sound of the little boy. He has onyx eyes, jet-black hair; his face was framed with centre-parted bangs that extended to his chin, and his overall outfit consisted of black shorts with dark blue t-shirt. Picking up the little bundle of joy was one who could be called his Tou-san. It was ridiculous how the two looked so much alike, but with also adding a pronounced tear through under his eyes._

" _Hey there little guy, no hello for you Tou-san?" came the man's calm voice. He didn't show much emotion, but even he couldn't help the smile creeping onto his face._

" _Tou-san" the boy now screeched onto his dad. He was so small you'd think he was having a seizure from all the giggling he was doing._

" _Now now you two, it's no fair if I don't join you two in the hugging moment" she came up to them and put her arms around the two._

" _As long as you two can be safe then I can rest assured that someday life will be truly happy for you guys" he spoke with a sad tone._

" _The only way we can truly be happy is if you still live, even if you're not always around, just sometimes is enough to keep us happy" her tone was also sad._

" _I'm sorry" his voice sounded different._

 _Raising her head, she saw him gradually moving further and further away, with the ashen face and blood falling from his lips._

" _Itachi?" she began to run forward._

" _I'm sorry" and then he vanished._

" _Itachi!"_

* * *

"Itachi!" sitting up quickly in cold sweat, she couldn't help but groan in pain as she realized the injuries from the fight were stinging.

A hand appeared on her shoulder, and was gradually pushing her back down. She was too tired to fight it after the rush wore off.

"Try not to move, I have done the best I can about your injuries, but there a bit extensive. I've sent for help, but they won't be here for a few hours" was the voice of a man.

Turning my head to get a better look at his profile, it suddenly occurred to me that I know him. This man has black hair and black eyes with a bit of blue taint to it. His hair is spiky with a blue sash wrapped multiple times around his forehead. His face almost resembled Itachis, minus the lines, and it appeared he was missing an arm if the sleeve had anything to go by.

"..You're…Sasuke…Uchiha" her voice sounded horse.

"…" He just stared at her showing no emotion to statement.

She couldn't help but smile. It was uncanny how much resemblance he had to Itachi; not just his appearance, but his personality as well.

A movement could be heard, and she saw Sasuke grab a glass of water nearby. Once he got it he slowly brought it to her mouth.

"Drink" he said.

Slowly, she began to sip slowly, and then she just gulped it all the way. She didn't even realize how thirsty she was. Once she finished the cup, she lied back down.

"Thank you" she stated with a smile.

"…."

"Not one for words are you? What time is it if I may ask?"

"Almost 5 in the morning" He answered.

"Well then I guess the kids are probably still asleep, if you here any movements it's probably them" she said as her eyes began to gently close and give into her exhaustion.

"…Who are you?" was the question he finally managed to ask.

Smirking, she truly wished she could keep her eyes open to see the expression he would make after giving an answer, "I am your sister-in-law".

Sleep finally claiming her; she was unable to see the shocked expression that may have been the second time of the night.

* * *

The birds were chirping, and the sun was starting to rise indicating it was now morning. A boy of about seven years old got up and groggily headed to the bathroom. He was always able to wake up early no matter what time he slept the previous night. After splashing his face with cold water, he changed his clothe and took a peak at the sleeping face on the bed next to him. A girl of about three years old was sleeping quietly with her mouth slightly hanging open. You could say she was like a close of her mother, except her red head was spiky, and her eyes were shaped like her dads. If he was the early riser, his sister was a heavy sleeper. Unless you shook her awake she would keep sleeping.

'I wonder how she and mom can sleep for a long periods of time' the boy mused to himself. Looking on the night stand next to his bed, he saw the photo of him, his mom, and his dad. This was a photo taken when his mom was still pregnant with his sister. He walked to the photo and put his hands in a prayers position.

"Morning Tou-san, I'm ready to start the day" he said. Every morning he would do the same thing before starting the day. After that he went to the kitchen and saw no one.

'I guess Kaa-san still sleeping' his mom was where his little sister got the long sleeping from. 'Well, I'll start breakfast and then wake her up.' He knew that sometimes his mom went hunting at night; it might also explain the bit of mud dragging to her room.

'Strange, mom usually keeps everything clean, regardless of how late it is' upon closer examination, he saw that there was some blood mixed with the mud on the floor.

His face began to grow pale, and quickly ran to his kaa-san door, swiftly opening the door. What happened after that was in a matter of seconds: The boy was picked up, with his back being slammed to the wall, and a sword was at his throat.

Immediately, he activated his sharingan to face his opponent, only to be shocked by the man he saw before him.

"…Tou-san?"

* * *

Sasuke could just not fathom what the women just said to him. When he asked who she was, he was expecting a name, not that; his sister-in-law and kids to boot. But that can't be possible since Itachi had been a registered criminal, and was always on the run from other ninjas after him. There's just no way could what she said be possible. Suddenly, he heard movement in the house, and when the movement got closer to the door, he got into position. Once the door opened, he quickly picked up the intruder and slammed him against the wall, activating his sharingan, with his sword to his throat. It appeared to be a boy of no older than seven, but what shocked him the most for the third time was the sharingan that was staring back at him with two tomoes in each eye. The boy himself had widened his eyes with shock, and said the words that made was the women stated real, "…Tou-san?"

As if being burnt, he dropped the boy and backed away. He didn't believe what the women had said before, but after seeing the boy with the sharingan he could not deny it; it was Itachis' son. The appearance was exactly like Itachis, minus the lines and shape of his eyes.

The boy got up, still with the sharingan activated, and turned his head to the bed.

"Kaa-san!" he quickly ran to the bed.

Sasuke kept his eyes on the boy as he quickly examined his mother.

"What happened to her?" he now had his eyes back to normal.

"She was attacked last night by ten men. I was following her steps and found her on the ground unconscious. I have called for help so she can be properly treated, but it won't be for a couple of hours until they arrive" He explained to him, turning off his own sharingan.

The boy nodded, and hesitantly asked the question that made Sasukes heart tighten.

"…Are you tou-san?" his eyes looked pleadingly.

"..No, but who are you?" Sasuke just couldn't help but be curious.

"My name is Itachi. Itachi Uzumaki-Uchiha." He fully introduced himself.

Sasuke pondered on the information given; he had no doubt that this boy was Itachi's son, with his name on top of it, but hearing Uzumaki made him realize that women was one. It made sense with the red hair. 'I guess Naruto has a living relative, besides Karin, of the Uzumaki clan. Heh, I guess me and him are always connected somehow no matter if it's through family, or the bond from years ago.

Looking at his now discovered nephews face, he realized that Itachi was waiting for him to introduce himself as well. He wasn't sure if he wanted to since he was the one to kill his brother, but he wasn't going to let go of any family relating to him, "my name is Sasuke Uchiha from the Uchiha clan, and from what you stated I guess that makes me your uncle.

* * *

Well that is all for this week, but since I am getting excited for this story, I have already began to write the next chapter.

No I will not be posting any early ones, it just means should I have any story blockage, I will at least be a few weeks ahead for updates.

On that note, if you guys don't know, I also have a story called Slowly getting there. Please read that too and let me know any feedback.


	4. Chapter 4

Next chapter, I'm actually a couple of chapters ahead of this story, ideas just popped out and I had to write it down.

I hope you guys are enjoying it, I'm actually finding this one my favorite of the 3 i'm currently writing.

Another note is I have started a new fanfiction as well, and was so positive in responses so i hope you guys check it out.

don't own Naruto.

* * *

Chapter 3

Itachi was now staring hard at him, pondering the words told to him, then looked at the floor with a blank expression on his face, "…you're the one who tou-san allowed to be killed by" he said with no emotion on his face.

Sasukes first thought was to explain what really happened on that day, not wanting a family member to hate him, until he recalled what his nephew said. 'Allowed to be killed by he said, does that mean he knew the story?'

"…..I hated you for it at first. Even though he wasn't around much, he always treated me with love and always had a smile on his face. Kaa-san told me the full story. She never hated you. I wanted to hate him for it, but I couldn't; I loved him too much. My sister was only a baby when he came back reanimated so she doesn't know him, but I can still make out his face and what he would always do when I'd complain; he would poke me in the head and say 'sorry Itachi, some other time'". His face had that faraway look.

 _Flashback_

 _Itachi was just playing with his sand castle, while his Kaa-san was watching him. It was a sunny day, and there was no one around save for the birds. His kaa-san seemed to be a bit more tired than usual; last month she was sick so much in the mornings._

" _Kaa-san, ya sleepy?" he asked._

" _Just a little, I'm just going to take a nap, you keep on playing"_

" _Kay" and with that he ran to the swing and started swinging._

 _Half an hour later, he tried to fly off the swing, on his fifth attempt he managed to do it, but instead of hitting the floor he was caught in someone's arms._

" _Now now, we don't need you to hit your head and go unconscious; who would protect your kaa-san" came the deep voice._

 _Looking up, he saw a man he hasn't seen in months._

" _Tou-san" he screamed, and started to hug him like a lifeline._

" _Hey now, save some of that for me" turning his head, he saw his mom awake._

" _Kaa-san, tou-san is back"._

 _Smiling, she gave him a hug then kissed the man._

" _Ewww" Itachi made a face as his tou-san put him down._

" _That's how grownups greet each other, but I don't have long to stay really" he stated._

 _His kaa-sans smile turned sad, "it's finally came to that already?"_

" _Yes, even if it wasn't, I probably only have a few more months until the medication would no longer be efficient" he now had a frown of his own._

 _Placing her hand on her stomach, she couldn't help the few tears that slid down her face. His father just wiped them away apologising._

" _You and Itachi made me feel more human than ever since I left my home. Both of you became my light, and if it were different, I would have given up everything to remain with you."_

 _His Kaa-san started to cry as she hugged tou-san tightly. Itachi never saw his mom sad before; she was strong and could even be scary at times._

" _If it's a boy it will be Sasuke, and if it's a girl it will be Kushina" was all his kaa-san said as she wiped her eyes, replacing it with a smile._

 _Not liking the sad atmosphere, he tried to find a way to lighten things up. "Hey Tou-san, let's play sand castle" he tried putting up the biggest smile he could muster._

 _His tou-san looked at him, gave a little smile, and then made a 'c-mere' movement with his hands._

 _Thinking he was going to tell him something, he quickly ran to him, only to get poked in the head. "Sorry Itachi, some other time"._

 _Pouting, he was going to complain, until his tou-san bent down and gave him one of those rare hugs of his. This hug felt different though. He didn't know why, but it felt sad._

" _Tou-san?"_

" _Itachi, please look after your Kaa-san, I know your young, but when I'm not around you're the man of the house. Think you can do it?" His father asked._

 _Looking into his eyes, he knew his dad was serious. Even though he fully didn't know the situation, he could tell his dad was depending on him._

" _Hai"_

 _Smiling, he gave his son a kiss on the head and announced his farewell._

Flashback ends

A few months later his mother had a baby girl and named her Kushina. All she said was that was her aunts' name and her kaa-san had really loved her. A month later his father came back, but he looked different; looked cracked with only a brown cloak

"Can I ask you something?"

"…." Sasuke at this point felt very uncomfortable since he didn't really often deal with emotions he now felt that were starting to overwhelm his calm face.

"….What was my Tou-san like when he was living in Kohana".

* * *

In a village that was known as hidden in the leaves, one man had been up early due to a request. A hawk had appeared in his home with a message requesting aid. Now in his office, he was reading the information given to him, and was thinking how to handle the situation.

'It has been two months since I saw him, and now this, I knew it would bite me in the butt letting him travel outside the village' he groaned as he finished reading the scroll before him. 'Sasuke I hope you're right about this' he thought as he summoned one of his anbu to him.

"Hokage-sama" the anbu bowed.

"Yes please get me Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga, and Sakura Haruno. Tell them it is an immediate summon for a mission." He ordered.

"Hai" and then vanished.

Rubbing his fingers to his temple, he truly hoped this wouldn't bite him back in the butt, 'Obito, why did I let you convince me to take the hokage position'.

* * *

"Okay and with that finishes your treatment. Just don't do any heavy training for a week and you'll be healed in no time" Sakura said as she finished writing on her clipboard.

"Thank you Miss Sakura, have a good day" said the genin boy as he left the hospital.

'I'm glad the injuries have been very minor these past two years' she though, minus the moon mission. She figured since there was nothing else on her schedule she might as well find Naruto and ask how things between him and Hinata have been. She couldn't help but feel a little envy between the two; she was happy for them, but seeing them sometimes made her think of a certain person.

'He'll be back someday, he said he would come back' thinking about it made her unconsciously touch her forehead where he poked her before leaving.

"Sakura Haruno" came an anbu in front of her.

"Hai" was the automatic reply.

"The hokage requests your presence immediately" the anbu explained.

"Very well then" was her reply.

With a nod, he vanished.

With a sigh, she hung her nurse coat up, and headed to the hokage tower.

'So much for my morning plans.'

* * *

One man, who was hopping rooftop to rooftop, was on his way to the Huyga district. Uzumaki Naruto had made plans to meet up with his girlfriend Hinata Huyga for some home cooked breakfast. 'Man, Hinata is such a great cook, whatever she makes actually taste better than the ramen at Ichiraku', was his thought process as he landed at the front door. He could already smell some of the food coming from behind. He knocked, and the person behind the door opened with a smile on her face.

"Morning Hinata"

"Morning Naruto-kun" she stood on her toes and gave him a gentle kiss.

A little taken aback from the bold move, he started kissing her back turning the gentle kiss more passionate.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Huyga"

"Gah" both of them jumped, and looked at the intruder.

"Don't you know not to interrupt something so personal" Naruto started to yell, his face turning red from embarrassment.

"You two have been requested to report to the Hokage at once" the anbu ignored Naruto's outburst and vanished.

Turning to look at Hinata, he saw she was looking as red as he was.

"….Let's go see Kakashi- sensei first I guess before breakfast", Naruto mumbled, clearly upset about the interruption, and the fact that the food would be put on hold.

"H-Hai" Hinata stuttered as followed Naruto.

* * *

"…..Nani?" Was what the trio said.

Sighing, Kakashi repeated himself, "Sasuke sent a message in the middle of the night. Apparently a woman was attacked by roughly ten men and was severely injured. He found her bleeding and got her back to her house while cleaning her wounds. He requires additional help since he's not trained in the medical field."

"Well that makes sense for Sakura-chan, but why do you need both me and Hinata to come along" Naruto asked, still a little mournful about the uneaten food.

"The information Sasuke gathered about this woman might interest you Naruto; he has reasons to believe that she may be an Uzumaki. If it's true then there might be a chance that she's being hunted to be used as either an experiment, or a breeding house."

Surprise was first seen on his face, and then glowered at the mention of her being hunted.

"She may be able to feel more comfortable with someone else from the clan, and Hinata can scout in case intruders are on the way" Kakashi finalized.

"Okay, when do we leave?" Naruto, now fully serious showing his growth, asked.

"At noon, gather what you need, get something to eat if you haven't, then on your way. This will be an A-rank secret mission since were uncertain of the circumstances surrounding it. Got it?"

"Hai" All three declared, then left.

* * *

"…..What?" That…wasn't what he was expecting. What Itachi was like as a kid? He hasn't ever really talked about Itachi to anyone, even Naruto.

"I was three the last time I saw him, but he was always smiling, sometimes holding me, and was kind to Kaa-san. When he came back reanimated, he held my little sister with utmost care….It was the first time I saw him cry", Itachi's voice broke through his train of though.

Cry? When Sasuke met up with Itachi and finally got the full story, Itachi was smiling, saying he would always love him. The only time he ever saw Itachi cry was when Sasuke threw his kunai at him, knocking off his headband.

He slowly sat down as Itachi came closer. His thoughts just couldn't organize themselves.

Suddenly, a door slowly opened with a little girl appearing from behind it; it still looked like she was half-asleep.

"Nii-san, you here?"

* * *

Well that's all for this story for now, please check out my other fanfictions when you guys have time.

This one really is my favorite one of the 3

Cheers


	5. Chapter 5

Hi everyone

Here's my recent chapter, and I guess I'm right now trying to focus the family portion of the story before getting into the action, sorry if it seems a little boring at the moment.

Let me know what you think, I had someone comment from my story 'Eyes of the first, Heart of the second' that I switched from first to third person too much. Please tell me if I'm doing that in this story so I can make it less confusing in future chapters.

Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 4

"Man it's been two years since Sasuke went traveling; I wonder if he was on his way when he met up with this lady?" Naruto said out loud.

"Who knows, Kakashi-sensei just said it would be a couple of hours to reach the location. He seemed to think that there was more than what Sasuke-kun had written" was Sakura's reply.

"Ano, what did he mean that Sasuke-san thought she was an Uzumaki? I thought you were the last of your line Naruto-kun" Hinata looked at him curiously as they jumped through the trees.

"Not quite Hinata. See my home village was destroyed not long after my Kaa-san moved to Kohana; however, there was a chance a few managed to survive. Karin, the one who was on Sasukes taka team, is an Uzumaki, and Nagato was one too." Naruto answered.

A surprised look was cast on both women as they continued on to their destination.

"If this lady is also an Uzumaki, then she could have also escaped, and might know if there are still more around. That's probably why Kakashi-sensei told us it was secret until we get the full facts. I wonder if Sasuke thinks she's an Uzumaki because of her hair or something; usually their hair is red, I'm half so I ended up with my dad's hair" Naruto continued.

"Well we will only know once we get there. Hinata watch our backs" said Sakura.

"Hai" was her response as the three continued on through the trees.

* * *

"Nii-san you here?" asked the little girl.

"Over here Kusi" said Itachi.

Turning her head and rubbing her eyes from sleep, she got a proper look at him, "Nii-san, Morning" she ran up to him and gave him a big hug, knocking them both down.

"Hehe, energetic as ever I see, did you sleep well?"

"Hai, and I'm hungry, where is Kaa-san?"

"She's asleep, so I suggest keeping your voice down." Sasuke chose this moment to speak.

Kushina turned her head and looked at the man that was sitting down. Getting up she asked the question, "who are you mister?"

Sasuke for the most part took a good look at her: Her hair was red, but styled in the way his own hair was when he was a boy. Her eyes and shape was the same as her brother's, but she had the same lines his brother had under his. Her face, however, had the same shape as her mom's, but with some chubbiness to it. Sasuke couldn't help it, he laughed.

"Hey, don't laugh at me that is mean" she pouted.

That just got Sasuke laughing even more. The boy acted more like how he was as a boy, but looked like Itachi, and the girl was such a mixture of her mom and dad, but actually acts how Naruto was like when he was a kid. Perhaps that's how all Uzumaki's act.

He was about to talk, but the boy spoke first, "Okay let's keep it down, Kaa-san is still sleeping"

"I'll wake her up, I'm still hungry" She complained.

Sasuke wasn't sure how he was to explain to a toddler that her mom was injured, but the boy seemed to know how to read the situation, "Kaa-san was up very late last night so let her sleep. I'll make breakfast for all of us so let's go to the kitchen"

"But I like her cooking better!"

Sasuke at this point came to the conclusion that the boy inherited the Uchiha personality traits, while the girl inherited the Uzumaki's. The boy made a movement with his hand to her, which she complied. Sasuke thought he was seeing déjà vu as Itachi proceed to poke his little sister on her forehead.

"Sorry Kusi, maybe next time"

Pouting, she started rubbing her head while heading out the door.

Itachi turned to look at his uncle; he had an amused expression on his face. Finding the atmosphere awkward, he said the first thing that he could think of, "…you hungry?"

* * *

"Further up ahead, I see a bunch of bodies and destruction" using her byakugan, she saw the destruction that must have taken place upon the information Sasuke gave.

Landing on the ground, the three got a better view. From the looks of it a fight broke out, and one of the bodies was missing a head. They didn't look like much upon close examination; only the missing head appeared to be dressed like an actual ninja.

"These marks are from swords, and the head was cut clean" Sakura stated.

Naruto took out a scroll and began writing out the situation, and location of the place. Then he bit his finger and slammed it on the ground, once the smoke cleared a little frog in blue appeared.

"Yo, what do you need me to do Naruto-sama?"

"Here, take this scroll back to the hokage and tell him to send out anbu to retrieve the bodies; there's more to this than meets the eye" Naruto ordered.

"You got it" then he vanished.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sakura asked.

Picking up a headband from the ground, he turned around with a look that caused Sakura to shiver "This one was a rogue ninja, why would rouge ninja try to hunt down an Uzumaki for a village they left behind?" was all he said.

True, just because the villages were at peace with one another didn't mean some of their shinobi didn't still have darker motives, and if this woman didn't belong to any place it was free for all. Looking at the headband showed they were once from the village of waterfall with a cross on it.

"I see a house not too far away from here. That might be the place Sauske-san was talking about" Hinata's announcement tore the atmosphere from the dread.

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and nodded; now was not the time to think about this situation, it was time for team 7's reunion.

"Let's go."

* * *

While Itachi was making breakfast, Kushina was looking at the man sitting in front of her. She was still a little sore that he laughed at her (She didn't look that funny), but the man looked strangely familiar.

He suddenly turned his head and looked at her, "what is it?" he asked.

Instead of replying she got up and walked up to him, with one hand on her hip and another on her chin. She looked like she was thinking very hard.

Sasuke just raised one eyebrow up while looking at her, she was quite amusing.

"Oh" as if she suddenly remembered, ran into her spare bedroom.

Looking at Itachi as if wanting an explanation, all Itachi did was shrug his shoulders and shake his head, "I live with her and she's as unpredictable as they come. Sometimes it's funny and other times it's annoying" Itachi stated.

'Unpredictable eh, who else do I know by that definition' Sasuke thought with a smirk on his face.

Kushina suddenly came out of her room holding a picture frame in her hands. "Hey mister, you look like him, are you?" she asked.

Sasuke for his part couldn't stop smirking; she was bouncing on her feet.

Huffing, making her cheeks get big, she began stomping her feet in frustration "Stop laughing at me you meanie and look at it" as she said that she shoved the picture frame as close to his face as she could reach.

Taking the photo from her hands, he steadily studied the picture: on the left was the woman dressed in black and red ninja pants and shirt. She had a hand on her stomach with a smile on her face, looking at the boy he assumed was Itachi. He looked no more than two or three in this photo holding a stuffed hawk in his hands. Compared to the clam and quiet boy who was cooking them breakfast, the boy in the photo looked like he didn't know what sadness was; he was looking at the man next to him with a big grin on his face. The man on the right made Sasuke's eyes widen: It was his brother Itachi, wearing the Akatsuki cloak, holding the little Itachi on his shoulder. He had the same smile he gave Sasuke before returning to the afterlife.

"Hey mister are you okay, you look like there's water in your eyes" Kushina's voice broke him out of the trance he seemed to be. Wiping his eyes, he realized that he had been crying.

"Want some water?" Sasuke looked down at the girl offering him a glass of water.

Placing the picture frame on the table, he took the offering water the girl held in her two small hands.

"…Thanks" was all he said after drinking the water.

"Time to eat" Itachi announced as he set the last of the plates down. Sasuke had been so immersed in the photo he didn't even realize the food was done. Impressed, he grabbed the chopsticks' and tried the omelet that was placed on the table; it tasted good.

"….It's good" was all he said.

"Yay let's eat, thank you nii-san" Kushina announced.

Before Sasuke put another piece in his mouth, a knock was heard.

"…Stay low" he said quietly as he approached the door.

He quietly made his way to the door, with his hand on his sword. Before he opened it to demand who it was, however, a voice was heard through the door.

"Sasuke, hurry up and open this door, I can practically smell the food from here".

* * *

And that's a wrap.

Okay I know her name is spelled Kushina, but Kusi sounds a bit cutter than Kushi to me so I want her nickname to be that.

I'm trying to make Kushina both oblivious and perceptive, granted she is only three but still.

Itachi is seven so he's more capable of acting a bit older.

Cheers


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys, Here's the next chapter.

There will be a little learning about the OC's past in this one, but no name yet. You got to be a bit more willing to wait, its coming.

I was asked for more sasusaku, so I added a little bit of it in this chapter and will try to include more in later chapters as well

Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 5

Frustration that was the biggest emotion he was feeling at the moment. He had lost ten men, one of them being the level of a jonin, and her body could not be found. She may as well be dead, but without a body to confirm it, he was not taking any chances. 'Dammit all, none of this would have happened if she had just accepted my proposal', she could have been a great asset to plan; she had the rare chakra that only was ever seen in Mito and Kushina Uzumaki. By having her on his side, she could face the Kohana Jinchuriki and supress his chakra if should he use that power.

'If she doesn't want to join me she must be eliminated since she knows of my plans' he may be blowing this out of proportion, but he is a cautious man and won't stop until a body has been discovered.

"Sir, the meeting is taking place soon" said one of his henchmen.

"Very well, I am on my way" was his reply.

The man nodded, and left. Getting up, he took his staff, and proceeds to the chamber where the plan was being discussed. 'Soon I shall have my revenge; soon they shall feel the wrath of all the hatred of the Uzumaki clan within me.'

* * *

"Sasuke, hurry up and open this door, I can practically smell the food from here".

The door suddenly sprung open, reveling Sasuke Uchiha looking very annoyed.

"Do you always have to announce yourself so loudly?"

"Heh, how else would you know who it was" Naruto responded with his hands behind his head.

"Hey mister, who's at the door"

"Kusi, come back, what did I say about strangers"

Two voices caused the trio to look behind Sasuke; a girl appeared to be held back by an older boy. Sasuke turned his head towards them, and then sighed.

"Don't worry, they are from my village" Sasuke stated.

Stopping their squirming, the two looked at the people at the door. The girl began to giggle, while the boy stood up straight, bowed to them.

"Hello. My name is Itachi Uzumaki Uchiha, and welcome to my home. Please help my Kaa-san to the best of your abilities".

Shocked and stunned expressions were written all over their faces. They turned their heads to Sasuke with questions in their eyes.

Sighing, Sasuke just widened the door to the entrance, "come in, I'll explain everything inside"

* * *

 _She couldn't do anything, she was weak._

 _9 years old and wasn't able to protect the one that meant more to her than anything._

 _Tears were falling down her face as she looked at the bed in front of her. The echoes and conversations of the doctors didn't help one bit._

" _I'm sorry, but the poison was something we had never encountered, even if there was, it had nearly consumed her heart" was the doctor's response._

 _She wanted to so badly blame them for not trying hard enough, but knew that would be just stupid. She knew who was at fault for her kaa-sans death; her. If she hadn't let her guard down, her Kaa-san wouldn't have had to take the kunai to the back. It didn't matter that she got the ninja in the end, the moment it hit her it was all over._

' _My fault, my fault, why did I have to be so weak that it took kaa-sans life for me to kill that mist ninja' she berated herself. It's her fault she didn't pay attention, her fault she was all alone in the world…her fault her kaa-san is now dead._

 _Suddenly the hospital had changed to a battle field, and the man with his chest slashed was in front of her._

" _Awww, looks like your all alone now, but I'll help you if you like…I'll send you to where your kaa-san is!" he screamed as he dashed forward._

* * *

"Noooooo" sitting up quickly for the second time with sweat coating my skin.

"Hey, its okay, nothing is going to hurt you" a voice next to her said.

Turning my head, there was a woman, with pink hair and green eyes. On her forehead was a diamond shaped symbol.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Sakura Haruno, and I'm a medic from Kohana. My teammate Sasuke Uchiha requested aid in order to help you" the woman named Sakura said.

"Kohana huh?" I lied back down.

"…." Her hands started to glow green, and already I could feel myself healing.

"Me and two of my teammates that came with me found a bunch of bodies and destruction on our way, was that you?" She asked.

Looking at her, I gave her a light nod, "I hunt when the kids are asleep, and those men came out and attempted to kill me. I may not belong to any village, but I've trained as a ninja my whole life, and my kids are my life, they aren't old enough for me to leave just yet." Suddenly, I realized that it must have been midday by now.

"Where are my kids?"

"They are with the others that came with me. I must say there quite interesting, especially the little one; she keeps getting on one of my teammates nerves" Sakura answered.

Smiling, I just close my eyes and focus on her chakra. I don't feel the need to sleep anymore, but I still felt too drained to do anything.

"….When you deem me recovered for the day, tell your comrades to come to my room, I need to warn you about something" I said.

"Warn us about something, what's it about that can't wait for a few days?" Sakura asked now sounding curious.

I open my eyes and stare into her eyes, saying what's been eating me without hesitation, "warn you for the reason I was targeted for elimination last night".

* * *

"Hey mister, why are there sunflowers on your head" Kushina said.

"That's my hair" Naruto exclaimed.

"Then your growing sunflower hair" Kushina yelled, running away.

"Why you little-oi get back here" Naruto screamed, chasing Kushina down the hair.

Hinata just giggled, and Sasuke shook his head. The biggest hero of the fourth shinobi world, and he still can act like a five year old.

Thinking about Naruto made Sasuke think about Sakura as well; she had retained her short hairstyle, though it appeared even shorter than before, reaching up to her chin, with her bangs now parted to the left keeping it out of her eyes, and her usual red cloth forehead protector worn as a hairband. She was wearing a sleeveless red qipao dress that reached her upper thighs, with white trimmings and a white circular design on the back similar to her dress when she was 12. The dress is tied with a black obi and she was wearing black shorts underneath as well as her usual black gloves and grey elbow protectors, along with now wearing knee protectors as well. She has also changed to wearing regular black, high heeled ninja sandals. If Sasuke hadn't noticed back then when he poked her forehead before leaving, he certainly noticed now; Sakura was a complete beauty. The emotion that he was feeling before being thrown into the situation at hand made itself known once more. He tried to push it down as now was not the right time to dwell on it.

"Let them be, we rarely see other people so the only way she knows how to get their attention is to make fun of them, especially if they are easy to rile up" Itachi's voice had snapped him of his train of thought as he gave each of them a mug of tea.

"Thank you Itachi-kun. How old are?" Hinata asked.

"I just turned seven a few weeks ago, Kushina turned three two months ago. Strange day that was, we saw rocks falling from the sky" Itachi stated as he sipped his tea.

"When did you first activate your Sharingan?" Sasuke asked.

Looking at the ground, he had a grim expression on his face, "…When I was five, it…was also the first time I killed" his fingers began to clench.

Both Hinata and Sasuke couldn't believe what they heard; at five he did what most do either as genin or chunin. He continued to speak.

"Kaa-san said to hide since the men seemed to only be interested in her, but Kushina was so young she didn't know how to keep quiet. One of the men somehow got through the window and attempted to stab her", he suddenly grasped his shoulder as if visibly flinching from it, "I got there in time, but he got my shoulder. I looked up, thinking I was done for, and the man just froze. I didn't know why he had that shocked expression on his face, but I quickly acted before he finished me off; I stabbed him in his chest. He fell clutching at the bleeding wound" he was shaking at this point.

Hinata just got up and walked to Itachi; she hugged him. He tensed at first, then relented and hugged her back.

"Sorry, it's just not a good memory for me; I made a promise after I survived that day to get strong so my sister would never be threatened again, after all you can't protect anyone if you're dead." Itachi said.

"What about you're Kaa-san?" Sasuke inquired.

"Kaa-san? Oh don't worry, I'll also watch out for her, Tou-san said I'm the man of the house when he's not here, but she can kick my butt ten times over; when she and tou-san would spar, she'd beat him and he was one of the most powerful ninja their ever was" Itachi stated proudly, forgetting his shaking from before.

Surprised one could claim such a thing about his brother, he was about to say so when he heard Naruto's voice.

"Gotcha, now apologize, my hair is from the fourth hokage, my tou-san" Naruto was holding Kushina from her back shirt.

"Then both of you grow sunflowers on your head" Kushina stated, laughing.

"Hey, it's not funny" shaking her.

"Put me down you meanie"

"Not until you apologize"

Puffing, she began to focus her chakra into one point in her body.

"Kusi, no!" Itachi yelled as he ran towards them.

"Huh?" Naruto turned his head, and for a moment was frozen as he saw the sharingan.

At that point a chakra chain appeared out of Kushina, aimed at Naruto.

Out of reflex, he dropped her and jumped out of the way.

"Kushina Uzumaki Uchiha that's enough, put that away" Itachi was now fuming, staring down her sister.

She retrieved it back into her body, and then collapsed onto the floor unconscious. Itachi turned his eyes off, then picked her up, carrying her piggyback.

"Forgive her, she's still young and does not yet realize that playing ninja and doing ninja techniques are two different things." Itachi explained as he bowed.

"Is she okay?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, it just takes a lot of concentration and it becomes tiring after a while, she has fallen asleep" with a nod, he went back to their rooms to place her on the bed.

Naruto was in shock, not because the girl attempted to attack him, but because of the chakra chain she did. He only knows one person who was able to do that; his mom. What also surprised him were the boys' eyes; how did he have the sharingan.

Before he could voice his thoughts, Sakuras voice came from the room.

"Everyone, get in here, there might be a problem and we all need to hear this"

"What is it Sakura-chan?"

"…Kohana might be targeted for an invasion"

* * *

"Everything is almost set sir, once we get the komoe clans acceptance, we can proceed to begin the plan, just another week or two".

"Perfect, I have waited more than 50 years, a week or two is nothing to my building hatred, just make sure to find her body, if she's alive the plan may be in ruin".

"Hai" and with that he disappeared.

'Soon my hatred shall be unleashed; soon that village will know what is like to lose everything. The hokage will be the only survivor to see what he failed to protect. He will know the exact pain I felt when my home fell' turning his head, he saw the photo of him and his two great granddaughters just sitting on his lap.

'Reina, Kushina, I'll get revenge on them for making you suffer'

* * *

Well thats that. It's slowly getting there (Heh,get it) and more characters will be introduced as the story progresses

Any suggestions are always welcome, critcism, opinions, reasons. No worries let me know.

Cheers


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys

Some more flashbacks in this chapter, and you finally get to know her name.

I've been getting comments recently about switching from first person to third, Causing some confusion when reading.

Let me know if you feel the same for any chapter you read.

Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 6

I was looking out the window, trying to organize my thoughts. The wounds that the medic had healed had done wonders. Just felt sore now from the aftereffects. It also made me recognize my other senses; hunger. I had been able to survive before from lack of eating before, but a body cannot heal without nutrition. I'd ask the medic for some food later.

The views outside showed a Sakura tree blooming; it made her think of a memory when she and Itachi became more than friends:

 _Flashback 8 years ago_

 _From the time she was 11, she and Itachi would meet up, or see each other at random, unplanned, times. Usually, they would fight other missing-ins chasing them, spar with each other, or they would hang out to pass the time. She would chat with him and he would listen quietly, answering when questioned._

 _Lately the past few weeks had been a little different; he tried to see her as oppose to just the usual random meet ups, would talk with her, and even ask questions about her background. He never asked before, having previously stated the past 'didn't matter' to him._

 _They were walking, side by side, to a location where Itachi said he knew was rather quiet, and voided of other presences. She was confused on what he could possibly want to speak to her about in private as opposed to the usual meetups; he was still a mystery. Yes she knew he was a missing-in of his village, yes she knew what he did, and yes she knew he belonged to a vile group of S-class missing-ins, but she couldn't help but want to talk to him, walk with him, and just be in his presence. She didn't understand why she couldn't just let him be since she first met him. She guessed she was just stupid like that; however, his eyes never seemed to hide his true sel,f and that was what drew her closer to him. How can someone known to be heartless have such sad, suffering, and soft eyes? Killers don't have regrets and yet his eyes showed that he fully did, (even if he wouldn't admit it to himself)._

 _They had arrived in an area where a Sakura tree could be seen; it was beautiful. Turning her head to him, she saw he was looking at her with a small smile, his hand held out to her. Surprise showed on her face as she took his hand; he never willingly offered unless in dire situations. As they walked towards the tree, she couldn't help but voice her confusion, "Itachi, why are we here? What is so serious that you felt the need to come where we can't even sense living animals near us?"_

 _Arriving at the destination, he sat down pulling her down as well, and very carefully began speaking; he kept a hold of her hand._

" _There's something that I wish to tell you, something which I am not sure if you'll believe me or not, but you've become someone, and the only one, that I can trust this information to. Please do not interrupt until I have finished". He looked very calm, but I could tell by his eyes that there was a little bit of worry in them._

 _Nodding to him, he began his story of how he was raised in the leaf, his clan, his family, the elders, the Hokage, how he graduated, when he got his sharingan, the death of his best friend, how he got it to the next level, his vision, killing off his family, and his little brother. He said he was proud to be a leaf, despite what it cost him, but now worried about what to do about his little brother, and could only keep tabs on him at a distance._

 _She felt surprised, shocked, saddened, angered, but more importantly, she felt relieved; it explained a great deal of how his eyes could hold such gentleness even though he was supposed to be a criminal._

 _She didn't seem to realize that she had been crying until Itachi began to wipe the tears with his thumb; he was being very gentle today, offering human contact._

" _Sorry, I didn't even realize that I had started crying, haven't cried since I was nine" She said, wiping the rest of the tears away._

" _It's okay, I was thirteen the last time I shed my own share of tears" he stated._

" _So, what are you going to do about your brother then? Perhaps if he has friends then, he won't be alone, and also be safe from those elders of yours" thinking that might be the best idea._

"… _.How can you take my word so easily?" he sounded calm, but had a bit of doubt in his eyes._

" _Your eyes have always been the most expressive of you Itachi. Even if your actions say one thing, your eyes always show the truth, and it explains a lot your story. Your eyes have told me since I met you about your suffering, sadness, and a bit of regret. Now the missing pieces have been filled." she said, showing not a single hesitation or doubt._

 _Itachi's eyes widened for a second before returning to their norma,l calmness look, and started talking about a topic completely different to the story from before, "When I was about to be stabbed from the attack a few weeks ago, why did you take the hit for me? I could have avoided it and you wouldn't have sustained a life threatening injury" he asked._

 _Thinking about the battle a few weeks back got her to unconsciously place a hand where the sword had penetrated; the lung. "I wasn't thinking about how you could, I was more worried that you were going to be killed, and my body moved on its own accord. You ask why, but I'm not sure how to explain it; just the thought of you being hurt like that, it just hurts because I don't want you to die. It feels painful thinking about you no longer living. It feels different than how I felt about my Kaa-san, but it hurts none the less" she explained, even though it just got her more confused thinking about it._

 _Itachi's eyes widened again for the second time, then he did something she would never have expected of Itachi Uchiha to do; he kissed her. It was shocking, such a gentle kiss, and an emotion began to stir within her as she began to, surprisingly, kiss him back. It ended all too soon as he looked directly in her eyes, resting his forehead on her own, "After I left my village, I had planned out everything necessary for the sake of my home; everything predicted and set forth. I never could have predicted you, and never could have predicted that I could feel more than just contempt, sadness, perhaps a little fear, and disappointment; you make me feel happy. I kept telling myself that I would eventually have to leave and never see you again, or you would finally leave me, knowing my life will always be of conflicts. I was lying to myself, and a few weeks ago, after what happened to you, made me acknowledge something; I'm selfish. No matter how much I shouldn't, I need to have you in my life; you make me feel alive. If you truly can accept me, then you have also accepted the path I have decided, with all of the hardships involved. It will only bring you sorrow in the end, but there's nothing to be done about it; it must be continued for the sake of my home" that was the longest sentence she had ever heard him speak, and it also confirmed something within her as she gave him an answer._

" _Itachi Uchiha, we are ninja; are life is always of conflict, and chances of sorrow. I've experienced it and you've experienced it. No one can truly predict the future; even if you've picked the path you're destined to follow. I accepted you long before you told me the truth; and just so you know, I won't abandon you, you're not the only one who feels unable to let go."_

 _For the second time he graced me with a smile, and this time he put one of his hands on her cheek, and slowly brought his face back to hers. She was prepared this time as she closed her eyes. Lips met and the feeling from before intensified, it made one thing certain; she was in love with Itachi Uchiha._

 _Flashback ends to the present_

Thinking about him was always painful, but it would also bring a smile to my face; our love was set up to end in sadness from the beginning, but the kids were an unexpected joy to have.

A knock made its way to my ears, and I answered with a simple "come in" as I continued to stare out the window.

"Hey, I brought you some food along with everyone" Sakura stated as she placed the plate on the night stand.

Turning my head, I saw all of the four shinobi from Konoha come in, and what appeared to be sweet omelet in the medic's hands.

"Your son made it earlier today, and he saved you some when you were being treated by Sakura" Sasuke confirmed to me.

Nodding my head, I began to take bites; my hunger intensified.

"Whoa, you sure are hungry; looks like me when I'm eating ramen" the man with yellow hair stated.

"Naruto-kun" The woman with white eyes said sternly.

I just giggled as I finished my meal. I wasn't full, but my hunger had passed for the time, and I couldn't help but laugh at what the young man said.

They both just looked at me, and the young man smiled as he put his hands behind his head.

"Yes, that would be quite the funny scene with noodles hanging from your face if you were eating as fast as I was just now" I said still giggling.

"This is Hinata Huyga and Naruto Uzumaki, they're the ones that came with me upon Sasuke-kuns summon" Sakura explained.

My eyes widened for a second, and then I took a good look at the man named Naruto; despite his hair, his face, and the shape of his eyes, looked familiar.

"Uzumaki? And from Kohona?" I asked.

Now looking confused, he nodded.

"…Do you happen to know someone by the name of Kushina Uzumaki?" I asked.

His eyes now narrowed as he answered me, "Yeah, she's my Kaa-san, what about it?"

I just smiled and raised my hand to him "It's nice to meet you Naruto Uzumaki, my mother's name was Reina Uzumaki, the heir of the previous Uzumaki clan, and the older sister of Kushina Uzumaki; basically, I'm your cousin."

Shock now was on his face, with his mouth hanging open. It was quite amusing before he shook his head and took my hand with his eyes shining of happiness.

"I thought my clan had all died out for the most part"

"I honestly don't know where the few that I met are now located; I wasn't born from the village, therefore, I have no memory of it. My Kaa-san would tell me stories of it, along with aunt Kushina and the fun times they shared" I explained.

"So there are more survivors?"

"Yes, but it's been nearly five years since I had any contact from them; were all scattered, and some changed their last name to prevent themselves from being used as some sort of experiment."

"We can learn more about the clan later; you said something about an invasion towards Kohona being related to those men targeting you?" Sakura took the conversation to a more serious topic.

"Yes. Sorry, you're right of course. Well it's quite a long story so I suggest you sit down; if I don't explain from the beginning, it'll only bring forth more questions later on" I told them, now going to my serious mode.

They brought up four chairs.

"I guess I should begin with how the whirlpool village fell."

"Could you first give us your name since you know ours" Naruto interrupted.

Surprise, and a little embarrassment, coloured my face; I didn't even realize that I hadn't introduced myself yet.

"Your right, I haven't even introduced myself yet", I stated. Then straightening up I began my introduction of myself the way my Kaa-san showed me to do, while bowing, "Thank you for your patience everyone. My name is Jiyuna Uzumaki and I have a warning message for the hidden leaf village.

* * *

(Jiyu=freedom) That's how I got the name for the OC character.

I have started a new story last week called Unwavering Heart. If you have time, please take a look at it.

I'll have more SasuSaku in the next chapter.

Cheers


	8. Chapter 8

Hi Guys

Herres the lastest chapter, I hope you guys were finally pleased to get a name out of the OC

I'm going to try to get the group to hurry back to the village in the next few chapters, so please be patient.

Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 7

A toad appeared on the hokages desk; it was blue coloured.

"I have a scroll from Naruto-sama to give to the hokage" said the toad.

"Ah, that would be me, thanks" Kakashi said as he received the scroll. The toad bowed, and then spoofed. Kakashi unrolled it and begun to read its contents.

"Anbu"

"Hai" two teams presented themselves.

Giving the scroll to the captain, Kakashi gave the order, "Go to where that location is and bring back the bodies for a full examination; it seems there is some questions that require answering."

"Hai", then they vanished. Looking out the window, Kakashi was a bit confused with the information Naruto had sent; why would people, targeting the Uzumaki women, require so many people for the job?

* * *

"Well, let me start from the beginning. The Uzumaki clan are distant cousins of the Senju clan, and in some ways, even more distant of the Uchiha clan. They once had a village known as Uzushiogakure (Whirlpool village). They had an alliance with the Senju, which eventually extended to Kohona; the red swirl on chunin vests is proof of our friendship. Our skills in fuinjustu were feared throughout other lands, and it started attracting invasions during the second shinobi war. We had extended help from Kohona, and they did come, but it was too late by that point. Some of us, that managed to escape during the invasion, either changed our last name or lived the way missing-ins did. One of our abilities, or perhaps you would like to think of it as a bloodline, are our longevity and regenerating abilities. The eldest, from what my Kaa-san said, was almost 200 years old before the invasion. Every now and then a member of our clan are born with special types of chakra, it is called charka chains. Basically, it can suppress an opponent's chakra once used, and can even be used to create a barrier or seal. I know my aunt was capable with these chains, as am I. My daughter seems to also inherit these chains, though; she's still young and unable to properly control them."

"What does that have to do with the invasion?" Naruto interrupted.

"One of the people that did escape from the war was an elder named Reed Uzumaki. He believed that Kohona had abandoned Uzushiogakure, and ever since then has been trying to form groups to take out the village. Many times he's stopped; the hidden leaf village was attacked a great deal: during the third war, when the Kuybi attacked, when Orochimaru invaded, when pain destroyed the village, and when the world was nearly destroyed during the moon pieces falling onto the earth. He also keeps losing men when trying to recruit others. He's recently recruited enough people to believe he can invade and destroy Kohona once in for all" I finished.

"How do you know all this?" Naruto asked.

"In terms of my home country, my kaa-san told me since I was born somewhere else. In terms of what happened to Kohona, Itachi told me. In terms of the elder invading, well, he tried to recruit me to his group before; with my chakra chains there was a possibility that I could supress the tailed fox inside of you. You are viewed as an S-class shinobi in the entire world right now. I refused of course, and as a result, he has attempted on my life several times; if I don't join him then I must be erased since I know of his plans. He's more than a little pissed off since for every man I've killed, he's had to look for replacements, which take more time to execute his plan." I explained.

"Why don't you want to destroy Kohona? If this Uzumaki is your ancestor, and he says he wants revenge, why don't you agree with him?" Sasuke asked with his eyes narrowed.

"My Kaa-san never held a grudge since she believes that it wasn't their fault, plus she was happy aunt Kushina was alive, and happy, living in Kohona. Itachi also loved Kohona, his home, even if he had been marked in the bingo books. With the stories he told me about the place, it sounded a lot more pleasant than most of the villages at the time before the fourth war ended" I said.

"Why does he want to kill you just because you refused to join him?" Hinata asked.

"Because if he didn't, there would be a possibility that I would warn the hidden leaf village like I'm doing now. Even if he was going to leave me alone, I still would have warned you guys; there's been too much bloodshed, and peace has finally come. We don't need another war, plus Kohona was home to Itachi and aunt Kushina; I at least owe Kohona that much for their sake" I offered a smile.

"Umm, how do you know Itachi by the way, and is that why you named your son Itachi? Kushina makes sense since she was your aunt, but why Itachi?" Naruto asked confused.

I appeared confused and turned towards Sasuke for an answer.

"…I haven't had a chance to explain yet" he was pointedly looking away from her.

Sighing, I decided to give them a brief explanation since I was still tired, and wanted to just lie back down and sleep, "I've known Itachi since I was 11, and the reason why I chose to name my son Itachi was because Itachi was my lover."

All of them, except Sasuke, were in shock and disbelief. She pointedly looked at Sakura, "I know you would like to know more, but I'm still tired. Would it be possible for me to rest longer before you guys ask any more questions?"

Shaking her head, she offered Jiyuna a smile, "Of course, it's getting closer to dinner time anyway so, if you want, I'll cook us something while you rest; you still need to eat to recover."

"Thank you" slowly, I lied back down.

As they started to leave, I slowly closed my eyes; they were beginning to burn from unshed tears.

'Itachi'

* * *

"Roshi, are you sure you found her trail?" Called out one of the men; they seemed to have found what their looking for.

"Yes, I don't know what the other men were doing, but someone helped her and carried her somewhere nearby; they must be at a shelter somewhere" Roshi said. Roshi had passed the men that were killed by the women, and continued to track where she went. On his way, he found another stack of tracks colliding with hers. Once he looked up, he saw a house not too far away from the tracks. He followed them which led to the house.

The three men came closer and prepared their attack.

* * *

"She and Itachi? And he has kids? Annnnndddd, she's an Uzumaki?" Naruto exclaimed now that the shock, surprise, bewilderment had passed.

"Shut up Naruto, she said she wanted to rest, and you're talking above volume level" Sakura scolded.

"Sorry, but I just can't get my head to wrap around it. Itachi was on the run most of the time, when would he have had time to settle and have kids?" Naruto lowered his voice as he spoke.

"I don't know, but for now it doesn't matter. First, we need to report to Kakashi-sensei about this" Sakura explained.

Naruto didn't seem to be listening as he started to talk to himself, losing himself in thought.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?"

Sasuke just sat in one of the chairs, next to Hinata, and watched the argument between his two teammates. A feeling of nostalgia washed over him; Naruto and Sakura arguing and complaining, while he just stayed quiet unless he was asked a question.

He took a good look at them; Naruto looked like he got taller, and had shorter hair. He had his arm replaced, while now wearing black long-sleeves instead of the orange and black he once wore.

He took a good look at Sakura while she was paying attention to Naruto; the emotion, from before, stirred in him that he still couldn't identify with, but it was safe to say he truly missed them both.

"Sasuke, do you know how it happened?" Naruto suddenly asked, breaking Sasuke out of his thoughts.

"She has been unconscious for the most part before you showed up. When we spoke briefly, she just told me she was my sister-in-law. I didn't really believe it at first, until I saw the sharingan in the boy's eyes. He even looks like Itachi, so that was proof enough for me. She may explain more once we get to the village though." Sasuke explained.

"Everyone, three men are approaching the house. From the looks of it, they are heading to the right side of the house" Hinata announced. Her eyes showed she had her eyes activated.

Sasuke immediately got up, and ran into the room of the kids he heard the window break. Sasuke saw a man, shinobi from his slashed headband; try to stab Kushina, until a kunai was thrown his way. Looking at where the kunai came from, Sasuke saw that Itachi had his eyes activated, with a kunai in his hands.

Sasuke heard the others approaching, and he quickly punched the man enough to knock him back out of the house.

"There's two more, heading towards Jiyuna from outside" Hinata said again.

Naruto just looked at Sasuke, nodding, and ran straight to Jiyuna's room with Hinata following.

Sakura ran straight up to the window to take a closer look at the opponent; his hair was long, and began to move on its own as if it were alive.

"Sasuke-kun, I think his hair is infused with chakra" Sakura said.

Sasuke came close and inspected his opponent, activating his sharingan; it indeed look like chakra was infused in his hair, but it seemed to be true to certain parts of his body, covered with hair, as well.

"Sakura, did you guys send word for anbu?" Sasuke strangely asked.

"Yes, they should be arriving to retrieve the bodies we found" Sakura replied, not sure why he was asking.

"Okay, I'm going to try and capture him, might be easier to get information if he's kept alive; stay here in order to see an opening, but try to hold back your strength in order to avoid his instant death" Sasuke explained his plan.

At first Sakura wanted to argue, but realized it made the most sense; her strength could easily crush bones, and if they were trying to capture him alive then Sasuke was the better fit for this situation. Nodding, she moved to the side to let Sasuke through. Just before he could take the leap, a hand grabbed his empty sleeve.

Turing his head, he saw Itachi with his sharingan still activated.

"Uncle, please be careful." He said it with a face that took Sasuke aback; it was like an exact mirror of his brothers' face.

Awkwardly, he patted Itachi's head with his hand, and then leaped out the window. Now was not the time for emotion, he had an opponent to face.

Itachi went to stand next to Sakura as he looked down at the fight; he had no idea how strong his uncle was, but he had full intention of finding out.

* * *

Naruto had just pushed the men away before they had attempted to enter the window from outside.

"Naruto-kun, there hair seems to be infused with some sort of chakra, we should be careful not to let that hair touch us" Hinata explained as she got into her clans taijustu form.

"Agreed, it looks like it has a mind of its own" Naruto answered, and then started talking to the men in front of him, "hey, what's the big idea of attacking a defenceless women?"

"We have orders from our superiors to have her put down. She is a threat to our goals" one of the men answered.

"Seeing as your part of the village that our plan will take place, you shall be put down first" said the second, before they both charged in.

"No one's being put down today, let's go Hinata" said Naruto, now in his sage form.

"Hai" she replied, ask they got into position.

* * *

"That's the last of the bodies" one of the anbu said, sealing the body in a scroll.

"Search for anything that may have fallen off during the battle, we need to bring anything, no matter how useful, or useless, it may appear" the captain ordered.

Just as the anbu began to search, a spike of chakra could be felt; the anbu saw huge lightening surge into the sky.

"Team one follow me, the rest of you keep searching" the captain ordered as he raced to the scene.

'Why it is every time team 7 goes on a mission, the trouble always goes up' the captain thought. He thought after the war things may settle down, Tenzo should have known it was never that simple.

* * *

And that's it for today. A fights going start, ya.

Anyway I hoped it wasn't too confusing, I feel like I'm missiing some of my mistakes, so don't be afraid to correct me if you see anything

Cheers


	9. Chapter 9

Hey Everyone

Here's the next chapter

I'm not all that great about writing fighting scenes, so I kept it simple, at least for this chapter since I expect the enemy to be weak.

Hopefully in future chapters I will write longer fight scenes.

Enjoy

I don't own Naruto

* * *

Chapter 8

Sasuke observed the opponent before him; he had pale skin, vivid purple eyes, masculine facial features, four violet dots on his forehead, and appeared to have long dark purple hair, which was worn divided down the middle on his head with two separate partings on either side of his face. The man's hair was viciously levitating as if it had a mind of its own.

"Who are you and why are you attacking this location?" Sasuke asked as he put his hand on his sword.

"My name is Roshi of the Kaminoke clan, my reasons are that I have been ordered to kill the Uzumaki women. I have no idea why it's important to remove her from existence, but orders are orders. I have no orders of killing you or any of your friends. If you don't interfere, than you can leave peacefully." The man named Roshi stated.

"…" Sasuke had now sheathed his sword and activated his sharingan.

"So be it" and with that the hair on Roshi's head sprang forth, and lengthened, as it rushed at Sasuke.

With a blink of an eye Sasuke had cut up all of the hair that attacked him. He dashed in front of Roshi and made eye contact, thus, sending him into the genjustu.

Roshi collapsed onto the ground as Sakura landed next to Sasuke, "Seems his clan specializes with the use of manipulating the hair on their bodies" Sasuke stated.

"That didn't take too long. I guess we should bind him until we head to the village" Sakura stated as she moved to proceed with the bindings.

"That won't be necessary Sakura" a voice said as the person landed next to her.

'That voice', "captain Yamato?" Sakura asked; she saw it was an anbu captain with three others next to him.

"Honestly, why is it that every time you and Naruto are sent out, the mission becomes more than it should?" The captain, now confirmed by Sakura as captain Yamato, asked with a shake of his head.

"You didn't even need me to annoy you two this time" one of the three behind Yamato said.

"That voice….Sai, you still need to work on sounding more emotional to your words" Sakura said as she deadpanned of the lack of sync in his words with his tone of voice.

The captain turned to look at Sasuke for a moment before addressing the situation at hand, "What happened here?"

"He attempted on targeting the person were protecting at the moment, just like the men you saw nearby this location. I kept him in a genjustu in order to bring back alive for information regarding their reasons." Sasuke confirmed.

"There's still two more on the other side. Hinata and Naruto are dealing with them right now" Sakura stated as if realizing that the fights not yet done.

Nodding his head, he turned towards his men, "Bee, Fly, head over there and help out the other two. Make sure the enemy is kept alive as we need the information they possess."

"Hai" and they took off.

"I'll take this one; we just finished with the location nearby and were about to head back, until we felt a pulse of chakra nearby. When do you think you'll head back to konoha?" Sai asked.

"Maybe tomorrow or the days after expect our arrival. It depends on how well our charge heals. Two days should be more than enough." Sakura said.

"Alright, we will head back and inform the hokage about your decision as well. Should you see the two I just sent, tell them to head back to Konoha" and with that, while carrying the body, they left.

Sighing, she turned her head towards where Hinata and Naruto were, but saw that Sasuke was staring at her. She made eye contact and felt a bit unnerved by what she saw in his eyes; confusion and a bit of amusement.

"What is it?" she finally asked, starting to turn red a bit from all of the staring.

As if realizing what he was doing, he broke the contact, "Nothing I guess, let's head to the others"

Annoyed, she was about to ask again when a sound from above got her attention, "Uncle, that was so cool! How fast are you, what did you do to that man?"

Both she and Sasuke looked up as if just realizing that the boy looking down from his room was there.

"….Let's just wait for them up there instead. Both of them can take care of themselves if there leader is at that strength level" Sakura said, offering a smile.

"Hn" was all Sasuke said as he jumped back up.

* * *

Naruto had just jumped out of the way at the last second before the hair could hit him, destroying the majority of it with his rasangan. Hinata just kept dodging as the hair wasn't allowing her to get close enough to attack. 'This isn't good, we can't get a good hit or else they will die, but because me and Hinata are trying not to kill them, we can't get close' Naruto thought.

Suddenly, a bunch of chakra chains shot forth and wrapped the two men in a bind, preventing them from either attacking or using their chakra.

Surprised, Naruto looked up to see Jiyuna standing on the front porch; a bunch of the chakra chains were coming out of her.

"Hinata, quickly seal their chakra's, those won't stay on for much longer" Naruto calmly stated.

Surprised, she did as he was told. Once the men had their chakra sealed up and knocked out, she looked up to see Jiyuna awake, panting, and retreating the chains back into her body. Once they had been fully returned, her knees gave out and she began to fall off her balcony.

"Jiyuna!" Naruto yelled out as he jumped to catch her. Once he caught her bridle style, he landed next to Hinata.

"Hah, hah, sorry, the noise woke me up and I figured you could use a bit of help" she said with a faint smile.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Hinata Huyga, were here to help you capture the enemy" two anbu jumped in front of them.

"I'm starting to get annoyed of how these guys pop out of nowhere" Naruto muttered.

Giggling, Hinata just pointed where the men were. The anbu just went to grab them, quickly bowed, and then left the premises.

Turning back to Naruto, she saw him give an odd look at Jiyuna.

"The same" she heard him say.

"Naruto-kun?"

"She has the same technique as my kaa-san. My kaa-san was also capable of using chakra chains like that."

Looking at the women, Hinata saw that she passed out and appeared to be sweating fiercely. Placing a hand to Jiyuna's head, she realized why; her head felt hot!

"Naruto-kun, let's put her back in the bed, she's burning up" Hinata said

Nodding, realizing the heat he felt was coming off of the woman; he jumped off the ground to place her back in her room.

'I need to find Sakura-chan quickly; a fever is the last thing we need happening right now.'

* * *

"Uncle, that was so cool! How fast are you, what did you do to that man?" Itachi just couldn't contain his excitement. He sort of knew that if his Tou-san was strong then his uncle would be as well, but he never actually saw his father fight. Seeing Sasuke fight was like a blink of an eye; it's there and after blinking, it's done.

Both Sakura and Sasuke returned and observed the damage; apart from the window and glass on the floor, the room seemed clean. Kushina still seemed to be unconscious.

Sakura walked up to her and decided to check if she was alright.

Again, just like back on the ground, his eyes wavered to her; he didn't know why he was suddenly observing her movements, or why that even though she was one of the three factors that won the war (Him and Naruto being the other two of course), he was comparing how she was as a genin to now. He already knew she was strong, probably surpassed her master like him and Naruto, but he couldn't help but see if there was any familiar features he could recognize from his childhood.

A pull of his sleeve got his attention to look down; Itachi's eyes seemed eager.

"Say uncle, how fast are you? How skilled are you with your sword? Can you jump high? It's so cool how you can fight with one arm, what happened to it?" Itachi looked like he was expecting an answer.

His eye twitched as he heard Sakura giggle in the background, "I'm not sure how fast I am. I would say highest level in sword skill. I can jump really high. I lost my arm two years ago in a fight." At this Sakura's giggles had started to turn into light laughing. He just glared at her.

"Sakura-chan", Naruto had come and opened the door, "Jiyuna is burning up with fever" He exclaimed.

Sakura had stopped laughing, and started to head towards the room where her patient was staying in.

"Wait! What happened to Kaa-san?" Itachi followed us out.

"She helped us about halfway through the fight with her chakra chains, and then collapsed. When I caught her, she felt really hot. Hinata is placing a cold rag on her forehead right now" Naruto explained.

"Okay, I'll check what's wrong, then were going to decide what to do from here on out" Sakura said as they entered to see Hinata wiping Jiyuna's face with a wet cloth.

"Everyone, please leave so there's space and I can concentrate" Sakura ordered.

Everyone left while she began, but from what she figured out it was from overuse of chakra when her body still needed to recover. 'If her clans ability indeed makes them heal fast, then she should be fine by tomorrow'. After making sure everything was stable, she left the room.

"Did you figure out what their abilities were Sasuke-kun? From what my Byakugan saw, their hairs were infused with chakra, and it was thrashing violently" Hinata asked.

"From what the man gave out, they were from the Kaminoke clan. His hair indeed was fused with chakra, and it was the only weapon he used against me before falling to my genjustu" Sasuke explained.

"It was the same with us. Every time I cut their hair off, more would grow in its place. They also appeared to be rouge from the scratch marks on their headbands" Naruto continued.

"We'll leave that to the anbu to deal with. For now, how about we make some dinner, and hopefully tomorrow we can travel" Sakura said, coming out of Jiyuna's room.

"Sakura-chan how is she?" Naruto asked.

"She should be fine. It's mostly due to fatigue since her body had not fully recovered, but her healing has taken care of most of her injuries. If she breaks that fever, tomorrow we can travel back to Konoha and deal with the situation at hand" Sakura confirmed, "In the meantime, Itachi-kun? Would it be alright for us to make dinner here for everyone?" She turned her head towards Itachi for confirmation.

Surprised at the sudden question directed at him, he answered, "That's fine, but since kaa-san was injured, there was no food brought back; she normally would hunt around midnight when my sister and I are sleeping."

Nodding at this, Naruto punched a fist in his hand, "Yosh, in that case me and Hinata will go hunting. Itachi, do you know any routes your kaa-san usually takes in order to hunt?"

Itachi went to grab a map in one of the cupboards; it appeared to have a drawing on it, "Here are a few locations where you can hunt; its locations tend to tell us what kind of meat were having."

"We'll surprise you then, c'mon Hinata" Naruto said as he grabbed Hinata's hand.

"Naruto, make sure your back before sunset. That's two hours away" Sakura yelled out as the two ran out the door.

"Hehe, he's really funny, is the two of them dating or something?" Itachi asked.

"Uh, yeah, knowing him it might just take those two hours so they have some time for themselves" Sakura sheepishly said.

Sasuke was slightly surprised by the news; it looked like Naruto finally figured out the Hugya's feelings. 'I wonder what else could have happened during my time away' Sasuke thought as he looked at Sakura once again for the umpteenth time.

"Well, I guess while we wait I could take a look at-

"You look different" Sasuke suddenly said before he realized he spoke out.

Jumping, and a little surprised, she turned to look at Sasuke; it appeared that he was just as surprised by what he said as much as she was. She wondered what he could have meant by that. His face returned back to its neutral look, and it looked like he was waiting for a response from her.

"….Huh?"

* * *

"Captain Yamato, do you think it's wise to leave them with Sasuke? I know that he's supposedly changed since the war, but I don't think he can accept people just like that back into his heart" Sai said, voicing his concerns. Despite still sounding a bit blank, his emotions have improved a great deal, and he had remained as either an anbu, second in command, or part of team Kakashi since Sasuke had yet to return to the village.

"Whether I think it's wise or not doesn't change the fact that all of the original team 7 have welcomed him back. The leader of team 7 is also our current hokage, so there's no point in disregarding his orders; whatever changes Sasuke has been through, were just going to have to trust the fact that he is indeed now a Konoha shinobi" And with that they proceeded to head back to the village.

'I certainly hope that's the case, I don't think either Naruto or Sakura could take it a second time around' was Yamato's thought.

* * *

And there's that. I feel like I may have missed some mistakes so let me know if you guys find any.

It does seem suspended for chapters to stay in one location for so long, but in after a few more chapters, their will be a scene change

Cheers.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys

I'm going to try to start moving the story more towards action than explainations starting next chapter.

For now a Little more flashback, and if people remeber chapter 6, then you will get this flashback

Enjoy

I don't own Naruto

* * *

Chapter 9

"We have accumulated more than 10,000 fighters; more than half of them being bandits, but their cheaper and are fooled once you mention they can steal anything they want from the village. The ninja's that we have accumulated are from the Kaminoke clan, Komoe clan, Shapu clan, Tisu clan, Hari clan, Ura clan, Raion clan and their cousins the Chita clan, and Reza clan. The rest are a bunch of rouges that left their respective villages."

"Good, were almost good to go, there's one last problem that I need to deal with, then we will be free to leave."

"Reed, just so were clear, after Konoha is destroyed, whoever is left of the battle will build the village brand new. It will be better than that sound village that was created years ago; we don't experiment on anyone who wishes to join us" one of the leaders of the rouges said.

Reed looked at him and smiled; it wasn't a happy smile, but one filled with malice, "I don't care what you do after that as long as every single living konoha shinobi and civilian alike are killed; they don't deserve to live after abandoning their ally. Only leave the hokage alive so he can suffer what he failed to protect." Everyone on the table nodded at that.

"By the way, what do you plan to do once we bring the village to the ground? From how much hate you have for it, I don't believe that you will want to live in that village afterwards" The leader of the Tisu clan said.

"I won't live in that place, but since every village will need a leader, I shall name one for that village before my departure, after we bring Konoha to the ground" Reed responded.

That got a lot of the leaders of their respected clans to look at each other anxiously; it would bring their clans to glory.

"For now, just focus on the plan. Afterwards, I'll settle it in some way fair so each clan will have a chance" after Reed stated those words, he got up, and left the room.

Things were proceeding smoothly, and now he had the power to finally extract his revenge. There was just one problem though; the Uzumaki women! Reed didn't know where she was or if she was dead or alive. All he knew was that if the body is not brought back within two weeks, then he'll have no choice but to ignore it as he proceeds with everyone to attack Konoha. He didn't tell the other clan members of a chance that the plan might be revealed because he believed that whether or not Konoha did find out; they wouldn't have the man power to defeat his army. He was Reed Uzumaki, the oldest Uzumaki still living, and not once did he ever care for the glory or fame like the new generation of shinobi; getting his revenge will be enough for him, even if he has to sacrifice a few of his blood, and his men, in order to achieve that long standing goal. Once he got to his room, he looked at the photo with his granddaughters sitting on his lap; in that brief moment he let a tear slide down, then wiped it away. He changed his clothe, and then got to bed. Even if he was still able to fight, his body was old and needed longer rest than the young shinobi. 'It won't be long now. Just two more weeks' and he fell asleep with that thought in mind.

* * *

Jiyuna waited until she heard Sakura close the door before opening her eyes. Despite the fever she felt, she could not sleep. The whole fight scene had reminded her of the battle that she and Itachi had once faced that nearly was fatal:

 _Flashback 8 years ago_

 _She and Itachi had met up again, this time in the land of Rivers in Tanigakure. Itachi appeared to have left his partner somewhere in the village of the mist. When she asked him about it, all Itachi said was, "He has some business there". Jiyuna knew that Itachi didn't like to talk much about what he did, so she left it silent at that. They had gone to eat at a small café in Tanigakure, with Itachi using his hat as a cover in case anyone recognized him. She just wore her usual ninja attire since she technically wasn't a missing-in. Itachi had planned to extract information from the leader of certain whereabouts for future recruits of the S-class group he was in. Jiyuna had decided to tag along since she wasn't planning on doing anything else for the week after visiting her Kaa-san's grave; it had been 5 years since her death. She would talk idle chatter, while he would just listen, until she mentioned going to her Kaa-sans gravestone._

" _You're Kaa-sans grave? How long has it been since her passing?" This had caught her by surprise as he usually tends to not ask about her past unless he deems it important._

" _It's been 5 years. She died when I was 9 years old."_

" _How did it happen?"_

" _She took an attack for me, and the weapon had been soaked with poison. By the time I got her to a doctor, it was too late; her heart had been practically eaten by it"_

 _His face stayed calm and neutral, but his eyes showed of surprise; she always seemed to be able to tell what he was feeling from the look of his eyes. It amazed her sometimes because there were many who were far too scared to look him directly in his eyes._

 _Itachi looked like he was about to say something, but turned his head away as Jiyuna felt a strong presence nearby. She was about to ask Itachi about it, when an explosion went off. This caused all of the people in the café to run out as ninjas came from the ceiling; the look of their headbands showed that they were from the stone village. There were six of them in total._

" _Well now, what do we have here; two rouge ninja, and from the looks of it your Itachi Uchiha" one of them said._

 _When it comes to fights, Jiyuna's emotions turn more calm and a bit sarcastic, "Technically, you have one rouge ninja; I've never belonged to any village."_

" _Like it matters, you just talking with this criminal is enough to capture you as well." Another said as he suddenly appeared from behind. Before his attack landed, however, her chains grabbed his arm, and slammed him against the wall._

" _You bitch" all five of them started to spring forward._

 _She and Itachi split, and started handing them separately; three for him and two for her. One was tall and the other was short. The tall one called out one of his rock attacks, while the short one called for a mud one. She made some hand signs, and a water shield appeared, blocking both attacks._

 _She threw a kunai at the tall man, chakra enhanced, and he moved out of the way, but got cut a bit on the shoulder. The other one sprinted forward, and she pumped some chakra into her feet in order to dash forward, meeting his sword with a sword she wielded. They had just passed each other, with a few seconds pause, until she heard him groan and fall onto the ground; the front had been sliced deeply. Looking at the tall man who landed on the ground, his mouth was bleeding. The kunai that was thrown earlier was laced with poison that kills slowly, but painfully. His body swayed, and he fell on his front._

" _W-what's h-happening?" the tall man asked._

" _The kunai that was thrown at you was laced with poison; it'll take a while for you to die, but it will be very painful, not that I plan on leaving you to live those next few days" she said, stabbing him in the head._

 _The level of the two was chunin level; too low to face in a fight. Turning her head to see how far Itachi had gone, it appeared not far at all. She decided to slowly walk there; usually Itachi would finish before her fights._

 _When she got closer, she started running based on what her eyes were seeing; Itachi was too focused with the stone ninja in front of him to realize their was one reappearing from behind, ready to stab him with a sword. In one swift motion, the sword made a piercing sound, and blood was spilling on the floor. The stone ninja looked so surprised that he didn't react as she threw the kunai at his head; he died instantly._

" _Fool, that was pointless" Itachi had come to take a good look, while pulling the sword out; it had pierced the lung. Her vision started blacking out, and she turned to look at his face; the neutral face he usually wore was replaced by absolute horror. Her eyes closed as the world turned black._

 _The next time she woke, there was a white ceiling and a bunch of mumbling sounds; her head was in such a haze that she couldn't make much of it._

" _Quick, her lung is beginning to fail"_

" _The surgery will need every bit of concentration, don't let anyone come in"_

" _Just continue the oxygen flowing in her"_

 _Who needed surgery? And why was a gas mask being put on her mouth. She would have gotten up and pushed them away, but not only did her mind feel fuzzy, but her body felt heavy as well._

 _The gas mask was starting to put her back to sleep, and the only thing she could think of was where Itachi went._

 _The next time she woke up, her mind was clearer. She felt a sharp pain when she attempted to get up, but she ignored it. It defiantly was a hospital. 'I guess it wasn't my time yet' which left her to one question, what happened?_

" _Already awake, yet not resting like your suppose to" a voice that startled her had placed a hand on her shoulder, and pushed her back to lie down._

 _Turning her head, she saw Itachi standing there, with his hand on her shoulder, but what surprised her was his facial expression; it was of relief and exhaustion._

" _Itachi, are you alright?" Ever since they had met, he only ever wore the neutral look with sometimes an annoyance or smirk. She didn't have to look into his eyes this time to read him._

" _I'm not the one who nearly died, and it better not happen again. Go back to sleep, I'll still be here in the morning" Itachi said._

" _But your partner-_

" _Can wait, my priority right now is your recovery" Itachi interrupted._

 _She wanted to argue a bit more, but her eyelids were starting to get heavy again. She slowly closed her eyes, as she heard a whisper come out of his mouth, "…..if you were to die, I really think that I wouldn't be able to handle it" it was so soft that she thought she had imagined it, just like she imagined the feel of his hand on hers._

 _Flashback end_

'I guess I really can't keep good on my word to not do stupid actions' Naruto is considered to be one of the heroes in the world. He didn't actually need her help. 'Heh, no matter, what's happened has happened, and it's not as deadly as last time' she laid back down, thinking some sleep might be for the best. As she calmed down, her hearing and other senses sharpened, and before she fell asleep, a loud question "Huh" was heard behind her door.

* * *

"….Huh?" That was the response she could give him. His words had taken her by surprise, or more like what he said.

Sasuke just had an amused expression after hearing her response; that just earned him a glare.

"It's been two years Sasuke, of course I look different. You've changed in appearance as well" Sakura said.

"Hn" Sasuke answered, but he kept his eyes on her, unsure of what else to do.

Sighing, Sakura just grabbed one of the chairs nearby, and took a seat near him, "okay, what's on your mind that you're so reluctant to share?"

A little taken aback by her boldness, Sasuke opens his mouth, and then shuts it closed. His eyebrows narrow, then he shake his head.

Sakura wondered what could cause him to even speak the first sentence, let alone contemplate on what to say; how much could Sasuke have changed within the past two years?

"…..Was the past two years on your journey what you expected?" Sakura hesitantly asked.

Snapping his head back at her, he originally was going to give her the usual 'ah' answer, but he remembered that he was supposed to make an effort to converse, especially with Sakura.

"…It was different than my first time, before the war. I saw how the alliance remained intact even after the war. The past two months were spent in the land of waves" Sasuke explained.

Sakura's eyebrows shot up at this; Sasuke not only said full sentences, but he went to the place where the first C rank mission as a team did.

"I saw Inari and his family. They told me of their visit back when Pein had destroyed the village. Did you know they named the bridge after Naruto? The great Naruto Bridge is the name of it"

"No I didn't. It must have been named after we completed our mission back then. Seems that Hinata wasn't the only one who acknowledged Naruto back then" Sakura had a smile on her face as if remembering back then.

"Was it a scary mission that was capable of getting Naruto-oji popular?" the sound of Itachi's voice broke in.

Sakura just turned to him and smiled, "Hai, it was. I, Naruto, and Sasuke-kun were a team when we were twelve years old, and wave was the first C rank mission we did together. It was actually an A rank in reality, but we continued. We didn't want to abandon the city since back then it was being harassed by a criminal. We were barely ninja back then, only a month after graduating" Sakura explained to Itachi.

"Then, how did Naruto-oji have a bridge named after him, was he strong back then as well?" Itachi asked.

Sakura was about to talk, but Sasuke beat her to it, "Back then he was known as the dead-last, a failure, and he couldn't go head to head with me back then. He, however, had a strength that most don't possess; the ability to change a person's perceptive. By convincing one person to be brave, it spread throughout the rest of wave, and they had recovered the courage they once lost. The one who created the bridge understood this, and named it the 'Great Naruto Bridge' in hopes of it remaining strong for decades to come."

Sakura was stunned; not even she knew why they had called it the Great Naruto Bridge. It suddenly occurred to her that not just Sasuke's looks were different; his wall that he always had as a child was mostly gone; the guarded look in his eyes had vanished.

A squeaking noise was heard, and all three of them turned to the sound. A small head had popped from behind the door, "Ni-san, why is the window broken; its cold!"

* * *

Hanger, hehe.

For all those clans, their Japanese names, some are animal names, don't remember what the rest were.

Sasuke said in chapter 1 that he was going to try to open up more, so I tried to make an awkward Sasuke while talking, I don't think it worked though.

Cheers everyone, Reviews are helpful


	11. Chapter 11

Hey Guys

Here's the next chapter, a simple one.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Enjoy

I don't own Naruto

* * *

Chapter 10

"Hinata, catch!" Naruto said as he threw the 10th fish he caught towards her.

Using her eyes, she quickly snatched it, and placed it in the bucket with the other fishes.

"There, I think that should be enough for tonight. I hope Sakura-chan doesn't get too angry with us for taking a bit longer; the location was father than I had expected it" Naruto said, getting out of the lake, revealing that he was in nothing but his boxers.

"I-I t-think she'll be okay with it" Hinata said, turning around as blush started to appear on her face. Two months they have been dating and she still couldn't help but stammer and blush sometimes in his presence; although, this was one of the rare times she got to see him shirtless, showing his hard built body.

Looking at his girlfriend, noticing the blush, and then looking at himself, a mischief look appeared on his face.

"Ne, Hinata, your face is turning red, are you catching a cold or something" he came closer and placed a hand on the side of her face.

"eeep" Hinata jumped, nearly dropping the bucket of fishes, turning around to see Naruto laughing.

"N-Naruto-kun that was mean" a slight pout appeared on her face, and it was Naruto's turn to blush. Man, why did it take him so long to see Hinata as more than a friend he'd never know; she was such a beauty and innocent looking.

"Sorry Hinata, I couldn't resist after that cute look appeared on your face" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head as Hinata's blush darkened; it wasn't fair how all she had to do was blush to make him want to kiss her!

She turned around again, and he decided it would be best to get dressed. Once he got everything on, he looked back at her, and could still see the blush on her cheeks. Deciding that they could spare a few more minutes before heading back, Naruto walked back to Hinata, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She turned around and saw that he was fully clothed again, but before she could say anything, he brought his lips to hers, causing her eyes to widen, before relaxing into the kiss. She still couldn't get use to this part either in her relationship with Naruto; each kiss felt like the first time.

They both knew that they should be returning back to the house, but maybe a few minutes to themselves wouldn't be a problem.

* * *

"Kusi, how are you feeling? Itachi asked his sister.

"It's cold! I told you that I don't like sleeping with the window open, but why it is shattered", she looked around and spotted both Sasuke and Sakura, "where is everyone?"

"Naruto-oji and Hinata-nee-chan have gone to get dinner. We were attacked while you were unconscious", a thought occurred to him, "you better be ready to apologize to Naruto-oji when he gets back, what were you think back there? Remember what I told you?" Itachi scolded.

Kushina looked down in shame as she responded, "there's a difference in using my chains during training and when playing."

Giving her a stern look for a moment longer, he sighed, and waved his hand towards himself once she had looked up. She got an excited look as she walked towards him, only to be poked on the forehead.

"Just don't do it next time" Itachi said in a softer tone, causing Kushina to pout while rubbing her forehead.

Sakura saw the exchange, and then looked at Sasuke as a memory from two years ago surfaced:

 _Flashback two years ago_

" _Under any normal circumstances, you would have been locked away, imprisoned for life" Kakashi was explaining to Sasuke about his circumstances, "….well, to be honest… the only reason your wishes are being entertained and all your actions up till now pardoned, is because your aid was instrumental in dispelling the infinite Tsukuyomi. Of course, that wouldn't have gotten you off the hook by itself. This is mainly thanks to the support from the hero and central forces in ending the war, Naruto and myself as the sixth hokage. Make sure you keep that in mind, so try and keep yourself under control yeah? Cause it'll be my ass on the line this time."_

"… _Yeah, sorry" is all Sasuke said._

 _Sakura just stared at him for a moment before speaking, "….you're really going to leave? Tsunade-sama is just about to finish creating your artificial arm out of Hashirama-sama's cells."_

 _Sasuke looked at her and for a moment she thought she saw his eyes soften, before returning to its neutral expression, "…right now, I need to see this ninja world for myself, and I must know what kind of state the world is in. I feel like I'm finally able to see all the things that I've overlooked and missed up till now, and if I don't seize this opportunity, I might miss my chance to see with this kind of clarity again. On top of that, there are a few things that have been on my mind."_

 _Looking down, Sakura pulls her courage to ask him what she asked three years ago, "…well…what if…I ask you….to take me with you….?" Blushing, she raises her head for an answer._

 _Sasuke's eyes were closed as he responded to her question, "this is a journey of redemption for me, and my sins have nothing to do with you."_

 _Crestfallen, she lowers her head, "nothing…to do…with me..?" she mumbles to herself._

"… _.." Kakashi just looks at her as if remembering her infatuation with Sasuke._

 _Sakura suddenly felt a light poke on her forehead, causing her to raise her head, just to see it was Sasuke who was poking her. He was smiling._

" _I'll see you when I get back…and thank you" his eyes kept the soft look before turning and heading on his journey to redemption. She couldn't help but stare as she touched the place where he poked her; it was the first time in three years that her heart felt full since realising her feelings for him._

 _Flashback end_

Just thinking about that day made her rub her forehead where he had poked her; she wondered why little Itachi did that to his sister. Must be an Uchiha thing?

Sasuke once again couldn't help but feel that emotion stir in him as he saw the display between Itachi and Kushina. He looked away and at the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura rubbing the same spot on her forehead. It suddenly reminded him of two years ago before he left on his journey.

'That's right, I poked her same way Itachi used to do to me be before he would say "sorry, some other time"'. Heh, I guess the display between the two had also reminded her of back then.

"Say, Itachi, why do you poke your sister on the forehead like that?" Sakura asked, wondering about the display.

Itachi was surprised; he actually never really thought of it, just felt it was the right thing to do since his father would do the same thing to him, "Tou-san use to do it whenever he was around if he didn't agree to my wishes. He would poke me and say 'sorry Itachi, some other time'. I didn't really know why he did it, but it sort of stuck with me, and I guess I followed his example."

"Itachi-ni-san, where's kaa-san? She's not still sleeping is she?" Kushina asked.

"She's been feeling sick, and when we were attacked, kaa-san helped, making her tired again. Don't worry, I bet she'll feel good as new after a full nights rest like she usually does after a fight" Itachi said, trying to reassure his sister.

"Kay, let's play than ni-san" Kushina jumped on her brother, knocking them down on the ground.

Itachi grunted from the impact, and was about to reply, when Sakura spoke first, "I think that's a great idea. If you guys don't stray from the house, then you can go out. Just make sure to come in when it starts to get dark, or if I call when it's dinner time."

Kushina brightened at that, and quickly sprinted to the door. Itachi got up, and looked at Sakura's way, mouthing 'thank you' to her, before going after his sister.

After the two siblings left the house, Sakura decided to get up and see what she could use for cooking once both Hinata and Naruto came back from whatever meat they chose.

Sakura took a quick glance at Sasuke; it looked like his mind was elsewhere. Remembering from past experiences, she knew it was best not to ask him; he would share if he wanted to.

Sasuke, still thinking about what he saw from the two siblings earlier, noticed Sakura's glance. His nature was to ignore her, but knew that wasn't the way to connect with others.

"…I use to do that to Itachi when I was young" Sakura looked a little surprised at this, but he continued on before he decided to stop, "when he would come home, I would jump at him and ask to play. When we would, it was always hide and seek. Once, he used shadow clones during the game. I thought that was 'cheating'" a small smile tugged on his lips.

Sakura smiled at that, and decided not to push it as she started to look through the cupboards to see if she could make any appetizers, or find any spices.

Sasuke decided to watch, and was thankful that she didn't ask any questions when he told her a bit of his childhood; she really has changed from the first time he interacted with her.

For the next hour or so, this was how it was like; him watching her while she worked on the appetizers, trying not to feel his gaze on her, until the front door opened, revealing both Naruto and Hinata, with Itachi and Kushina behind them.

"Hey guys, sorry it took so long; who's up for grilled fish?"

* * *

After the fish was grilled up, along with some miso soup, everyone ate their share (Sakura had taken some to Jiyuna beforehand) leaving nothing for leftovers. While cleanup was taking place, Sakura decided to bring up sleeping arrangements, along with night watch.

"So we need to arrange night watch and sleeping locations. Any suggestions?"

"I can sleep on the floor Sakura-chan, no big deal, and I'll take last watch" Naruto stated.

A frown appeared on Sakura's face at this, "I don't think it's fair to-

"Wait. I think there are still some mattresses from the last time there were guests here. Naruto-oji, come with me to bring them please" Itachi interrupted.

Naruto smiled at hearing this, "Yosh, just show me the way Itachi. If there's four then it will be perfect."

"Ni-san, let me come too" Kushina said, running, and grabbing, onto Naruto's leg, "I want to see it"

It seems like sometime during their stay, Kushina has enjoyed making fun, and pranking, Naruto, thus causing her to follow him around, much to Naruto's annoyance.

"Hey, you're too small to help out. Why don't you go and help Sakura-chan out with the dinner table" Naruto said, trying to shake Kushina off his leg.

"I might drop the plates and break them; mattresses don't break if dropped" Kushina held on tighter.

Seeing how it might turn into a contest between the two, Itachi decided to just bring Kushina along as they marched to the location of the mattresses.

"Ano, I'll take the middle shift then" Hinata stated, while cleaning whatever was left on the table.

"I'll take the first shift-

"I'll do it" Sasuke interrupted, looking Sakura's way, "you spent the majority of your chakra healing Jiyuna today. Just rest tonight in order to check on her tomorrow."

Sakura wanted to argue, but what Sasuke said was true; she didn't show it, but she had been tired since the healing session she performed, and hadn't had a proper chance to rest yet.

"Okay Sasuke-kun, first shift is yours" Sakura gave him a little simile.

She could have sworn for that one moment, he had given her the soft look he gave her two years ago, before returning back to neutral expression.

* * *

After the mattresses were brought out, everyone got ready for bed, with the siblings sleeping in their rooms and Naruto on the mattress in between. Sakura had explained it to Jiyuna, and both she and Hinata stayed in her room. Sasuke got the couch. As the schedule followed, Sasuke was on first watch for the first two hours. He had been awake last night, tending to his supposed sister-in-law, and then had to fight the ambush that happened at the house. Even though his body was tired, his mind felt quite awake. It didn't really dawn to him until now that he would be returning to Konoha tomorrow, the village his clan started, where his family lived, the place he once wanted to destroy, his home.

Last time he saw the place, it looked so different due to Pein destroying it, then Yamato rebuilding it with his wood ability. Some places had still required construction. He wondered how it looked now, how the people would react once he showed himself, and how he would feel once he took his first step into the village.

'There is a chance that the villagers may give me cold looks like how Naruto was once looked at.' He looked towards the room where his best friend was staying in, then looked towards the room where Sakura was in. Those two never gave up on him, even after he defected, and it seemed like the Huyga girl was comfortable around him, even if she appeared a bit shy. Seeing that his shift was over, he proceed to head towards the room to switch his shift over, 'at least, when I take my first steps back into the village, I won't be alone.'

* * *

And that's that, next chapter they are moving out.

So how do people think of the story so far, traffic isn't bad, but not enough followers

well I'll keep writing, I personally enjoy typing this story anyways.

Cheers


	12. Chapter 12

Hi everyone

Here's onto the next chapter.

I Don't have much of a note to make, just keep them reviews and feedback continuing.

Don't own Naruto.

* * *

Chapter 11

Morning came rather quickly, and yet Kakashi had not gotten his much needed sleep. He had hoped that after the war, being hokage would be much easier than the previous hokages. That wish wouldn't be granted it seemed; first with the moon falling two months ago, now this unexpected Uzumaki survivor, along with the capture of men who were hunting for her. The T. I. department had been working all night, but were only able to conclude that there is a man with thousands of men working for him. The three live men that were brought in do not only have the ability to control their hair, breaking into their minds has been proving difficult.

'Sigh, I wonder how long I should hold the position of hokage before passing it to Naruto. Perhaps I'll just wait until he reaches the age Minato-sensei was before passing the hat along.' Kakashi really wanted to go to sleep, but knew he wouldn't gain much sleep until the mystery of those dead men, and three living ones, were figured out.

"Hokage-sama" an anbu appeared in a kneeling position, head bowed down.

'I hate to say this, but being hokage is draining my "youth". I bet Guy's laughing somewhere at that', "Hai, hai, report" Kakashi ordered.

"Ino Yamanaka from the T. I. department wishes for you to come by. She says there is something important for you to hear" the anbu reported.

"Did she break through the lock in their minds?" Kakashi asked.

"Just the head of the group; she was able to find a crack in the lock, making her break it down bit by bit" anbu said.

'Sigh, I seem to do that a lot lately' Kakashi thought, "Alright, I'm on my way now"

The Anbu left in a smoke, and Kakashi got up to make his way towards the T. I. department. He was just going to walk there since it was still early, and he hoped that afterwards he could get least an hour or two of sleep, 'although, if Ino is saying that its important, the likelihood of getting any sleep is close to zero.'

* * *

The door being opened made Naruto alert, only to relax at seeing it was just Itachi.

"You're up early aren't you?" Naruto asked; it was almost 6 in the morning.

"I always wake up around this time. My kaa-san and Kushina usually wake later than 8 though" Itachi explained as he went to the fridge to poor himself a glass of milk. He got another cup and poured a second cup.

"Here, has anything interesting happened during your watch?" Itachi asked, giving Naruto the second glass.

Naruto was taking a gulp of the milk, but choked when Itachi had spoken.

"Hey, are you alright Naruto-oji?" Itachi asked while patting Naruto's back.

"Y-yeah, 'cough', just went down the wrong way" there was no way Naruto was going to tell Itachi, who was only seven, that he and Hinata had cuddled and dozed off for about half an hour, before he got up to do his shift.

"Okay, the reason why I asked is because Hinata-nee-chan is sleeping on the mattress you were sleeping on last night" Itachi said.

Damn, "well, s-she felt too tired to return to her mattress, so I told her to take mine since I wouldn't be sleeping again for the remainder of the morning" Naruto quickly came up with something to say.

A groan was heard on the couch, and the two turned to see Sasuke slowly waking up.

"Naruto, can you, for once, not be so loud? What time is it?" Sasuke asked, using his only hand to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"Past 6:15 am. Would you like some milk Oji?" Itachi said.

Sasuke groaned again, "no, It's okay" and slowly, Sasuke walked to the bathroom, shutting the door.

"Wow, I didn't know Oji wasn't a morning person, he was up early last night" Itachi said, turning his head back to Naruto.

Naruto had furrowed his eyebrows as he caught a glimpse of Sasukes face before he had entered the bathroom. Over the years Naruto has gotten very observant and perceptive, but he would have been able to tell even if that wasn't the case with Sasuke; he looked a bit haunted.

"Yeah, I guess not" Naruto said back. He would ask Sasuke later when no one else was around; if even though Sauske had changed, the one thing that stayed the same was he wouldn't share anything if he felt it have nothing to do with you.

* * *

Sasuke splashed water on his face, before looking at his reflection; it showed dark circles and a look of someone being haunted. He had no idea why he had dreamt such a nightmare; his sleep, for the past two years or so, had been nightmare free.

'It was just a nightmare, it won't happen' he tried to assure himself. His old nightmares were always about back when he believed his brother was a heartless killer, but this one felt like an omen, one he would prevent from happening.

Drying his face, he looked at the mirror one last time, before heading back out into the living room where Itachi and Naruto were.

* * *

"Hokage-sama, glad you could come" Ino said.

Groaning, he gave Ino a pointed look, "I told before not to call me that; it's Kakashi-sensei to you"

"Sorry, Kakashi-sensei" Ino said, giving an impish look.

Sighing, he got straight to business, "I was told that you have information to share?"

"Hai, they have quite a strong protection for their minds in case one was captured. I still haven't gone through it fully, but I wanted to explain what I found since it seems to be about the village" Ino explained.

Giving her a nod, she continued, "When I probed his mind, it showed a room, with twelve people sitting in it. It appeared to be a meeting room. There was one man with white hair, carrying a walking stick with a red bulb on top, speaking about some form of invasion. There was a map in the room as well, and what was circled was the leaf village. I wasn't able to go further than that, but I think there might be a plan for an attack against Konoha"

Kakashi furrowed his eyebrows at that; an attack on the village, but why? As far as things go, they were in peace times, and all the villages were in an alliance.

"Take a break for now, you did good." Kakashi said, before leaving the room and heading back to the tower.

An attack made no sense whatsoever, but if it's true, then the person Sasuke rescued may know more of the plans, otherwise they wouldn't have gone for her in the first place.

Rubbing his temples, not for the first time since he took the position, he wondered why he had agreed to be hokage in the first place. It was, as Shikamaru would put it, 'too troublesome.'

* * *

"Jiyuna, how do you feel today?" Sakura asked. By now, everyone was in the kitchen after breakfast had taken place.

"I feel better, thanks to you. A bit sore, but it should go with a bit more rest. On another note, what's the plan for today?" She asked.

"The plan today is to head back to Konoha. At this point it would be safer if you stayed there for protection, plus our hokage will want answers" Sakura explained.

Nodding, Jiyuna turned towards her two children, "Itachi-chan, Kushina-chan, please pack your things; we will be living in Konoha for a while."

Itachi nodded at this, understanding the reasons why, but Kushina did not, and voiced her complaints, "what, why? I like it here Kaa-san, it's so quiet and open"

"Kusi, let's go to our rooms and pack, I'll explain it to you" Itachi said, grabbing his sister's arm, and dragging her towards the room.

"Nooooo, I don't want to" Kushina said while resisting the grip on her arm. It was futile as Itachi got them to their room.

"I hate to ask, but could one of you, perhaps….?" Jiyuna began.

"Hai, I'll give them a hand" Hinata said, making her way to the kid's room.

"And I'll give you a hand Jiyuna with the packing. After were done, I'll give you a quick check to make sure your wounds are fully recovered before we head out" Sakura said.

"Thank you" Jiyuna said in gratitude as the two went to her room.

That left both Naruto and Sasuke alone in the kitchen. It was the first time they were truly alone together since before Sasuke had left the village.

Naruto looked at his best friend, and could see the circles under his eyes. He came to the conclusion after seeing him that morning that whatever dream Sasuke had, it was a nightmare.

Sasuke couldn't shake the nightmare from his mind since waking up; he didn't know why he had it, nor did he want to think about it at this time, but the quietness allowed him little choice as his thoughts returned to the dream:

 _The village was burning, with only the heads of the previous hokages still intact, as if looking down at their burning village. People getting killed one after another, ninja's slaughtering the women and children._

 _His comrades, dead and cut up, blood pooling out of them. Naruto had a hole where his heart should've been, dead with Hinata dead in his arms as well._

 _Sakura was wheezing, as the blood was seeping out where he put his hands, wishing to stop the blood from spilling._

" _It's okay Sasuke-kun" Sakura said, her voice sounding too quiet for anyone else to hear._

" _Stop talking" Sasuke couldn't help it; his whole body was shaking of losing another person he cared about._

 _Sakura placed her hands where Sasuke's was, and gave him a small smile, "I'm not going to make it"_

" _Don't say that" his voice broke at that; he felt he was close to tears that he hasn't felt since Itachi died._

" _It's okay, I just want to let you know that I still lo-_

"Sasuke" Sasuke was startled out of his thought process, and looked to the voice that called him out; Naruto was looking at him as if searching for something.

Sasuke sighed at this; he should have known that his best friend was the one person he could not hide from, no matter how well he hid his emotions.

"Later"

Naruto frowned at that. "Sasu-

" _Later_ " Sasuke hissed out; now was not the time to be having this conversation where everyone might be able to hear; he didn't need anyone worrying about him for now.

Naruto looked Sasuke in the eye for a moment longer, before nodding his head, indicating that he understood; Sasuke knew that Naruto wouldn't let it go though.

Naruto then just grinned afterwards, and placed his hands behind his head, "So while were waiting for everyone to get there things in order, why don't you tell me of your travels for the past two years; any exciting fight's happened, or perhaps new friends you made?"

Sasuke blinked, then shook his head, a smirk playing on his lips; leave it to Naruto to turn a serious atmosphere into a relaxed one.

"Dobe"

"Oi"

* * *

"Sir, Roshi and his two companions have not yet returned"

"Damnit, what's taking those three so long? Please let me know when they do, it's very urgent" Reed said.

With a nod, the man left, leaving Reed to his thoughts. What was taking them so long? It has been three days since they were sent to find the body, could they have been killed perhaps? No, although the two were unknown of their skills, Roshi's clan stated that he was a genius. 'Perhaps I'm throwing this out of proportion. Either way we can't proceed with the plan for another two weeks.' A thought occurred to him that the ninja's of Konoha may have captured them, 'if that's the case, then I will need to plant some spies there in order to make sure our surprise attack won't be countered.'

He thought of who would be the right choice, and decided some from the Reza clan should go, 'they are a small group, and unknown, so they would have the lowest chances of suspicion.' With his mind made up, he left to search for the clan who would be used as a spy.

* * *

"Alright, everyone packed?" Sakura asked. Everyone gave a nod.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Sakura didn't know if the kids knew how to travel with chakra.

"Don't worry, Itachi-chan has good chakra control; he can jump tree to tree for traveling" Jiyuna said

Itachi nodded at this, while Kushina pouted; it wasn't her fault she didn't know. She walked to Naruto's side, and tugged on his arm, causing Naruto to look down.

"Naruto-oji, can you carry me on your shoulders?" Kushina asked.

Naruto looked surprised for a second, and then smirked, "No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Naruto" Sakura yelled out, causing Naruto to jump up, "We don't have time for this, just carry her, and Kushina-chan, please hold on tight, okay? We will be moving at a fast pace."

"Kay" Kushina said, holding her arms up for Naruto to pick her up, which he did, then was placed on his shoulders; the two had a similar smirk on their faces.

"….you guys did that on purpose, didn't you?" Sakura asked, feeling like she got caught in some kind of joke.

"Ne, what do you mean Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked innocently.

Turning around so that no one would see the smile threating to appear on her face, she continued, "Alright guys, Konoha are only a couple of hours away. We should be able to get there before noon. Jiyuna please let me know if you feel any exhaustion whatsoever; you're still recovering."

Jiyuna nodded at this, and all of them began to move at their next destination; Konoha.

* * *

There's that, Naruto and Kushina are getting along, and they have very similar personalities.

Also, a mystery as to why Sasuke is now getting nightmares.

The next couple of chapters are going to consist a bit of flashbacks, and more mystery.

Cheers


	13. Chapter 13

Hi everyone

Here's the next chapter

I think things are going to start to get Interesting

Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 12

The travel to Konoha for the past hour had been uneventful for the most part; if you didn't count Kushina's squeaks every time Naruto did a different kind of jump for entertainment.

"Yay. Naruto-Oji, again. I can see really high. There's nothing but trees. Do a back flip again. Yahoo" This was how the travel proceeded for the first hour. One would think that Naruto would have been annoyed at how he was being used as a carrier, but it looked like Naruto was having just as much fun as Kushina was.

"Now the high jump, just likes a toad, with a back flip to it" Naruto, being in front a few paces further than the others, proceeded with his description.

Sakura wanted to yell at him for acting that way with just a child (three years old to be exact), but Sasuke had placed a hand on her shoulders as if knowing what she was about to do.

"Don't. If her Kaa-san didn't say anything, then you shouldn't stop it. Hinata is keeping an eye out in case for enemies" Sasuke said, slightly tilting his head towards the said Huyga women.

Jiyuna, who was watching the two talks about her daughter, felt it was best to explain a bit about Kushina, especially since her son was currently choosing to stay close to the Huyga girl in the back.

"Don't worry about it; my daughter may be young, but she has always been more observant and acts older sometimes for her age. I guess always being on the move caused that to happen, only the past few months did we really setting down" she explained.

The two turned towards her, a little surprised that they were being listened on.

"Itachi seems to act mature for his age as well, though he appears calmer and level headed" Sasuke said.

"That only started to happen after he activated his Sharingan. Before, Itachi actually acted more like a normal child. I guess it's to do with the fact he had his father in his life for the first 3 years, and that same father kept enemies at bay as well. Kushina didn't have that luxury. The fact that Kushina is acting the way she is just means she feels safe and really likes Naruto if she prefers him over her brother to carry her" Jiyuna explained.

Sasuke kept his composure for the most part from hearing this; he knew that his Ni-san had never met Kushina, but to have it confirmed by someone else made him realise that perhaps Kushina was hiding more than she let on.

"Enemies?" Sakura asked, making Sasuke look at her as if wondering the same thing.

"The world may be at peace with each other, but there are still rouge's and bandits that have no desire for such a thing. The world was also still building themselves up after the fourth shinobi war, and even during the war, well it's a good thing I am a natural with seals, otherwise I would never have been able to keep those corpses away from us" she said.

'Reanimation' both Sakura and Sasuke thought at the same time.

"I guess me killing Itachi caused you a lot of problems; sorry" Sasuke knew that his brother wanted that outcome, but he felt he should state a bit of the guilt he felt, even if he felt choked up upon remembering it from time to time.

Jiyuna just shook her head at that, "Don't. I don't blame you nor Itachi for what happened. Even if you hadn't killed him, his disease would have within a few months; a year at best. Besides, I guess seeing Itachi from the dead had one good deed to it; he was able to meet his daughter for the first time."

Now that really took Sasuke by surprise; he didn't expect his brother to go to them after coming back alive since a war was taking place; I guess there are still a lot of things he didn't know about his brother.

The conversation had brought a memory back to that day; it was a bittersweet memory:

 _Flashback 2 years ago_

 _Jiyuna was just breastfeeding her daughter (a month old) while watching Itachi play with some toys that he was able to keep with him. It looked like a battle field out there. She had to seal the area to prevent the walking corpses from discovering them these past two days. It was a good thing that the hidden place where Itachi had discovered hadn't been found in the last two years. It still hurt to think about him; still hurt to think how little Itachi would take it once he realizes that his Tou-san was never coming back. A small gurgle brought her back to the present where it looked like her little new born had fallen asleep while eating. Wiping the drool off of her little one, she placed her on the soft mattress they were fortunate to find in all of this chaos._

" _So, it was a girl after all" a voice said behind her, causing her to instantly act out, bringing her chakra chains to wrap itself around the invader; she didn't even notice his presence._

 _What surprised her though was how familiar the voice was. Turning around, she felt herself pale at the person before her; he was just like those corpses she saw these past two days, but this one scared her more than anything._

" _Itachi…" She whispered. Her chakra chains were still covering him._

" _I'm glad to see you in one piece through all this chaos. I used Shisui's eye on myself in order to escape the control the user of this justu. I will vanish all the same once the justu is realised, but I am no longer being controlled by the one who summoned me" Itachi explained._

 _She knew what he was talking about (he had told her his full plan not too long ago before leaving to face his brother), and slowly released the chains binding him._

" _Tou-san!" Little Itachi yelled out. He ran to his father, not noticing anything out of the ordinary._

 _Itachi just opened his arms and lifted little Itachi up once he collided with him; he had never done that when he was alive._

" _My, you're growing so fast, and now you're a ni-san to your little sister here. What's her name?" Itachi asked his son, knowing the answer already._

" _Kushina-chan" Little Itachi yelled out, "hold her tou-san, she's really small and soft; I would cuddle her all day if kaa-san would let me"_

 _Itachi nodded, placing his son on the floor as he went to the small bundle before him. Jiyuna, still shaken by the turn of events, carefully picked up the new born and slowly let Itachi hold her._

 _It was one of the most touching scenes she saw before her; the smile Itachi had, looking at his daughter, was so serene and genuine, she couldn't help but feel tears coming to her eyes._

 _Itachi placed a small kiss onto Kushina's forehead before placing her back down on the mattress; Kushina never stirred or made a sound the whole time._

" _I suppose this reanimation has one good benefit" Itachi said, turning to look at her._

" _I…did…what happened?" She didn't know what to ask; she felt that she didn't want to know._

" _My plan backfired; it seems there was someone else who knew of my plans, and now Sasuke may attack the very village I have sworn to protect. I decided to place my faith in someone who I think will be able to save my foolish little brother, even if that foolish little brother doesn't want to be saved" Itachi said, hesitantly taking steps towards her._

 _It dawned onto her that he may think she wouldn't want to be near him, being back from the dead and all. She shook her own nervousness away coming to that realisation, and grabbed him for a kiss she wished ever since he died on that day._

 _Pulling back, she saw the look of surprise on his face, before he in turn placed his arms around her waist, and brought her lips to his, continuing the kiss from before._

" _Ewww, do adults really have to do that every time they see each other?" Little Itachi said._

 _She smiled at that, as she felt Itachi's lips smirk. Pulling away, she placed her head on his shoulder, her arms around her neck._

" _I have to go" Itachi said._

" _I know" she responded back._

 _He slowly pulled away, and placed one hand on little Itachi's head, and the other on Kushina's._

" _I hope that after this war is finished, that perhaps you will be able to move to Konoha. Maybe once my foolish brother finally sees the light, he can look after you three" he said._

" _I will go there once the war finishes, and the world has built itself back. If your brother is alive at that time, then I'll search for him" she promised him._

 _Itachi turned to her, and said the one thing she never expected to hear, "If not him, then your cousin may be able to help you out; your aunt had a son, who is the main person required to end this war."_

 _To hear that she still had a family close by truly startled her. She needed to find this person afterwards if what Itachi said was true._

" _What's his name" She asked as she saw Itachi starting to leave for good this time._

 _He turned to her, and gave her one last smile before disappearing, "Uzumaki Naruto" and he was gone for good._

 _Flashback end_

She had been so lost in her thoughts that she almost smacked into atree bark; would have if Sakura hadn't warned her. As it was, once she moved out of the way her foot slipped, and she realized just how tired and out of it she felt. Instead of feeling her body hit the ground, she felt herself being lifted instead. Looking up, she saw Sasuke had caught her before she had landed on the ground.

Sakura dropped next to him, and she noticed that the rest had joined them on the ground.

"Gomen, it seems that my mind and body haven't fully recovered yet" Jiyuna apologized.

"It's okay; I did say to let us know if you were feeling tired. We can take a little break before continuing on" Sakura said.

"We shouldn't stop; time is limited if there will be a plan of attack on the village" Sasuke said. He slowly arranged her so he was carrying her piggyback style, "Just tell me if you feel nauseous at all during the travel; I don't have any change of clothing at the moment."

She looked surprised, and was about to speak, when Naruto beat her to it, " don't worry about it Itoko; you probably feel like no weight for Sasuke at all. He's right; we are short of time with the explanation you gave us. We can't stop moving right now."

Sighing, she relented, and placed her arms around his neck for grip, "If you drop me, I'll hunt you down once I recover."

A smirk appeared on his face as he just 'hn',, and they all started to move again.

It was odd; the more Jiyuna was around Sasuke, the more she was reminded of Itachi, as if her connection to Itachi was getting stronger as another memory came upon her. She was remembering the first time she met him:

 _Flashback 11 years ago_

 _It hurt, it hurt a lot. That wasn't anything new to Jiyuna though; ever since the death of her Kaa-san, she would continuously train, and look for the people in the bingo book to test her strength out. She had sworn in front of her Kaa-san's grave that she would never let arrogance cloud her judgement on an enemy. She has been alone ever since her kaa-san died, and had no plans of trusting anyone afterwards; ninja's would just use her, not trust her. She would never let herself be manipulated ever. Thanks to the bingo book, she had made a lot of money in hunting missing-ins, and chose a village that had no connections to other villages to store most of her money in a bank. She stuck with only hunting those that were either chunin level or B-rack and below. She learned early on that bingo books were never truly accurate, as if they aren't updated, then the missing-ins abilities can appear unknown. Every time she brought one back to the village wanting their heads, she always had some form of injury, either minor, or close to fatal. The villages would allow her to recuperate as their gratitude for catching the missing-in in the first place, but she never needed more than a day or two before heading back out._

 _The reason why she was in pain at the moment was because she had taken care of all the chunin level or B-rank and lower ninjas, and decided to test herself on an A-rank level ninja. Collapsing on the ground, she learned that they were A-rank for a reason and that she was getting comfortable with winning too much to not notice the huge difference between an A-rank and B-rank ninja._

' _Damn, if I don't stop the bleeding it'll end here and my kaa-san's death will have been in vain' she was trying to get herself up, but unfortunately too much blood had been spilt. She tried to get to the nearest village, which was still too far to reach before she bled to death. She suddenly heard a sound near the bushes and realized that the ninja had managed to find her; from the looks of things the ninja came to finish her off._

' _Damn, I guess this truly is where it ends. Kaa-san, I'm sorry' was her last thought as she closed her eyes for the inevitable._

" _It's a pity; for someone so young, you truly are gifted. I wish you had chosen to be my ally instead of my executioner; things wouldn't have ended like this" the grass ninja said, powering up one of his kunai's with electricity._

" _Heh, I don't kill all those that are missing-in; just the blood lusted ones who truly like to kill, experiment on people, or harm the innocent in any way for fun. You fall into that category so I couldn't have been you alley; it's not my style" Jiyuna said._

" _Then this is your end; goodbye" the grass ninja said._

 _She closed her eyes, waiting for the oncoming feeling of death. It never came. Ten seconds. Thirty seconds. A minute. She finally opened her eyes to see that very same grass ninja collapsed on the ground, with his neck slashed._

 _She felt a presence next to her, and struggled to turn her head. She saw a boy, maybe a bit older than her, staring her in the eyes; they were red._

 _They looked at one another for a whole minute, until she heard him say something in a low voice, "Interesting, genjustu doesn't work on her."_

 _Well, that wasn't a surprise to her; her kaa-san discovered early on with her training that the chakra chains prevented genjustu from entering her senses. She couldn't sense them, but it never worked on her so it was moot._

 _She felt her consciousness leaving, feeling him place her on his back. She didn't know what he had to gain from it, but since he was helping her before she died, she guessed it would be appropriate to show her appreciation; most would have left her to die if she learned anything from her solitude of travel._

" _Arigato. Very few would have done what you did, and even fewer would do what you're doing now. I pray to the gods that your life be more worthwhile than mine" she stated her gratitude; her eyes have closed at this point._

 _She didn't know if she imagined what he said next, her conscious had been almost gone by that point, "…my life will be seen as a criminal. It's not enough, but it soothes my conscious to do a good deed after what I had done a few hours ago."_

 _Flashback end_

So lost in thought, she didn't realize that they had stopped moving. In front were the gates that Jiyuna could only guess was the gates of Konoha.

Before she let sleep take over, Naruto's voice had taken an excited tone, "Jiyuna, Itachi, Kushina, welcome to Konoha, your new home."

* * *

And there.

Yup, since it was all about them, there was no need for separations in between.

So how do you guys think

Please review

Cheers


	14. Chapter 14

Hi guys

Here's the next chapter, and just like last week, were finally in the village.

So there will be more flashbacks in the next few chapters, but for now, it's getting the village ready for action

Enjoy

I don't own Naruto

* * *

Chapter 13

It was a sunny day, with the birds chirping, and villagers waking up early in the morning to begin their day. Missions were being sent out, even if it's mostly boring ones, and people traveled in and out of the gates.

The ones who were currently not happy were the two guards sitting close to those said gates. They had survived the war, helped out with the fight against the ones who declared it, and even after getting promoted to jonins; Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane were still guards to the gate in order to make sure no one suspicious suddenly walks through.

"Man this sucks, even proving ourselves caused us to continue sitting here when more fun missions are being given out" Izumo complained.

Yawning, Kotetsu placed his head down that would have made any Nara proud, "Wars over, and everyone gets along; just take a nap, its easy money."

"Baka, I would think you would take things more serious after the war two years ago; just because were at peace doesn't mean there aren't those who still cause treachery out there" Izumo complained to his lifelong friend.

Kotetsu just shrugged, while keeping his head down.

Before Izumo could go on another rant, seven people had walked through the gates; four were shinobi of Konoha, the other three was women and two children.

"Izumo, Kotetsu, still arguing are we" Naruto said, with one kid sitting on his shoulders, waving at them.

The two took a good look at him, and then burst out laughing.

"Oi, what's so funny" Naruto yelled out.

"To think, the most powerful Shinobi of our village is giving a shoulder ride to a brat" Izumo said in between laughs.

"I'm not a brat" the kid on his shoulders yelled out.

This just caused the two to laugh even more.

A movement caused them to stop for a moment, only to have them laughing once again.

Sasuke couldn't help but feel annoyed, a twitch forming in his left eye.

"Sasuke Uchiha, the next powerful shinobi in our village, whipped by a women" Kotetsu said, pointing at the fact he was giving said women a piggyback.

"Okay, if you guys are done laughing, were going to go" Sakura said before things get out of control.

The two continued to laugh as the group left. They guessed that being on guard duty was worth it when once in a while something entertaining as that would happen.

* * *

"I swear, the next time I see those two, I'm going to kick their asses to remind them why I'm one of the more powerful shinobi in the village" Naruto grumbled; being a hero didn't stop some people from making fun of him.

"Naruto-kun, you got to admit, it is kind of funny"" Hinata said, letting out a little giggle of her own.

"Not you too Hinata" Naruto pouted.

"Okay, all things aside, I think this is how we should handle the situation; Sasuke-kun and I will take Jiyuna to the hospital, while Naruto and Hinata will report to the Hokage. Afterwards, bring him to the hospital. Hopefully she'll be awake by then" Sakura told them.

"What about the kids?" Naruto asked

"They should go with you; it will make Kakashi-sensei more curious instead of his usual tardiness."

Nodding, both Naruto and Hinata, along with the two Uchiha's, left. Sakura turned towards Sasuke, who looked back at her, waiting for some kind of confirmation.

"This way" Sakura said. And with that, Sasuke followed her, ignoring the stares the villagers were giving him.

* * *

Kakashi was this close to just destroying something. Not having the sleep he wished, and then finding out what Ino had informed him, was giving him a migraine. He didn't have all of the pieces to come up with his own conclusion, and it was, as Shikamaru would say, troublesome.

'Now I know why Tsunade-sama would constantly drink sake' he thought. There was too much stress for him alone to handle, as if paperwork wasn't bad enough.

'How did sensei deal with this and still have time for Kushina-nee-chan' he barely had enough time to just read his favourite novels, let alone talk with, god help him for thinking this, best friend Guy. He admitted that he thought Guy's father was the coolest adult when comparing him to his dad, but Guy still felt the need to challenge him, even though he would never be able to use his left leg ever again.

'I guess I should be thankful another war isn't coming around again' if that ever happened, maybe he would just resign altogether and let Naruto take over, consequences be damned.

"Hokage-sama, Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Huyga have returned. Shall I let them proceed?" the anbu asked.

Relief flooded him from almost going crazy with his thoughts, but wait, only two of them?

"Let them through" Kakashi said. The anbu bowed, and opened the door. Both entered, but he saw they had two children with them, making whatever relief he felt earlier leave him.

'Never mind, just from seeing those kids is telling me that a mindf*** is about to happen' he thought as the two greeted him and started to fill him in on the missing pieces of the information he had received from before.

* * *

"How is she Sakura?" Sasuke asked. Once they had reached a room in the hospital to place her, it was only then they noticed that she had fallen asleep.

"She really only needs sleep. The fast healing is impressive though; I suppose it's in the Uzumaki genes to heal fast. Naruto was faster because of the nine tails sealed in him" Sakura explained. She was currently checking Jiyuna with her medical Ninjustu to make sure no other injury had fallen upon her during the travel.

"…Why did you let them take the kids to meet the hokage?" Sasuke asked. He thought it would be better to keep them a secret to the population until the hokage eased them in. By taking them directly to him, everyone will be curious and suspicious, and, unfortunately, rumors may spread around.

Hearing this, Sakura smirked, "Because…if Kakashi-sensei sees the kids, it will be enough for him to come here right away afterwards instead of postponing it for later. The fact that young Itachi actually looks a lot like your brother, and his sister has Naruto's mom's name, will leave him stuttering. I only wish I could be there; I know Naruto is going to be rolling on the ground laughing at this."

Sasuke didn't really suspect this; I guess being hokage still hasn't taught him the meaning of punctuality, "So he's still tardy as ever?"

"Not by much as before, but still enough to make you want to punch him" Sakura started to giggle at this point.

Sasuke's smirk was plastered on his face; some things don't change.

Sakura looked at Sasuke and noticed something; his eyes had dark circles under them.

"Sasuke-kun, while we wait, you should try to get some sleep yourself; it doesn't look like you got much from last night" Sakura said.

Hearing Sakura say this made him remember the dream from last night; something he was trying to ignore.

"I'm fine, I'll rest after the whole meeting is done" Sasuke said.

"The meeting most likely won't happen in a few more hours, and since she's resting as well, nothing is going to happen for a while. Take the bed over there; if you can't sleep, then at least lie down. And no, I will not hear it; as a medic and my teammate, it is my responsibility to see that your health is kept up to par" Sakura said, cutting Sasuke off before he could protest.

Sasuke just glared at her, as she returned the look with a glare of her own. Deciding it wasn't worth the argument, and there really wasn't anything else to do, he sighed, and walked towards the bed where she had pointed to earlier.

"Wake me once Kakashi shows up, that's the only compromise I have to resting right now" Sasuke said.

Once he saw her nod, he took off his gear, and lay down. His eyes started to get heavy, and not expecting to fall asleep at all, closed his eyes. Before fully closing them, however, he glanced at Sakura one last time, and felt himself relax fully, 'If she's here then I can sleep without worry'.

* * *

"…." Kakashi was just frozen, not speaking for a couple of minutes now, after getting part of the report from Naruto and Hinata.

Both Naruto and Hinata just looked at each other, before turning there stares back at the hokage.

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei, are you okay?" Naruto asked.

Snapping back out of his thoughts, and looking at the two ninja's in front of him, he just banged his head on the desk.

'This job really is going to be the end of me; if not a war, then the mental stress' Kakashi thought as he kept banging his head on the desk.

"Ojiisan, doesn't that hurt?" said a voice that sounded like the little girl.

"Kusi, that's rude to say" the boy's voice this time.

Eye twitching at the name, Kakashi looked back up, and realized he forgot to ask about the two kids, "Naruto, who are these children with you" the girl made him believe she was an Uzumaki, but the boy, he looked unnervingly familiar.

Naruto placed the girl down, next to the boy, and Hinata made a wave as if telling them to introduce themselves.

"My name is Itachi-Uzumaki-Uchiha, and this is my sister, Kushina-Uzumaki-Uchiha. It's an honor to meet you Hokage-sama" the boy called Itachi said, with a bow.

"Why do you wear a mask Ojiisan?" The girl called Kushina asked.

If Kakashi thought Naruto's explanation of an invasion had surprised him, it was nothing compared to hearing what the two kids said.

"Wha…What did you say?" Kakashi whispered.

"Kusi, I said that was rude to address him" Itachi scolded his sister, who just kept looking at him.

"Naruto, what is the meaning of this!?" Kakashi yelled out, finally hitting his breaking point.

"It's exactly like they said. Apparently, Itachi didn't just die without leaving apart of him behind. Those are his kids. Itachi, show him your eyes please" Kakashi turned to look back at the boy, who if anything, surprised him even more after what was shown to him.

'The sharingan…' Kakashi didn't know whether to laugh of all things, or to continue banging his head on the desk like before.

"Where is there mother right now? From Sasukes report, she would be the Uzumaki of those kids." Kakashi asked

"In the hospital, but after she's recovered, I wish to help her settle down. It seems all three have been on the run for some time. She's my Itoko since her Kaa-san was my mom's nee-san."

Rubbing his temples, Kakashi explained something that probably didn't occur to Naruto, "Naruto, if what you're saying about the kids is true, then there's a reason why she didn't comeback right away at the time; her kids are the kids, in what everyone's eyes believe, of a traitor. Even though Itachi was a hero in his own way, most people don't know the truth, and they will have a hard time adjusting. As of right now, the safest thing would be to keep them here until this new enemy is dealt with. Afterwards, if they chose to leave, I will not hold them back."

"But…" Naruto began.

"No Naruto, I understand, believe me I do, but just remember how you were treated growing up. If that what ends up happening as well to them, would you want them to suffer the same way?" Kakashi asked.

The two kids, who appeared lost, were looking back and forth between the two of them. Itachi decided to state something to the group, seeing that at least he understood some of the conversation, "it's okay. Kusi never noticed it, but I'm already use to seeing some people stare at me like that. At least, if were to stay here, then Hinata-nee-chan, Naruto-Oji, Sakura-nee-chan, and Sasuke-Oji would be here for us. There's already family here. Out there, we have no one Hokage-sama. Kaa-san has been doing everything alone for most of her life, I want her to finally accept some help for a change" he stated bowing.

Kakashi looked at him, and couldn't help notice the similarities between the two, 'he's different, and yet the same as his father. I guess sometimes rough choices are the only way to help someone if what he's saying is true.'

"Okay, first let's get to the hospital, and have a chat with your Kaa-san. Then, we'll decide from what to do from there. I promise to give you guy's protection from anyone that seeks to harm you. Let's go" Kakashi got up, and Shushined out of the office.

"Oi, wait up sensei" Naruto yelled out as he grabbed the kids, and followed after him.

Hinata, who had quiet for the most part, snapped out of her thoughts after everyone had left the office, 'I better follow' she though as she followed everyone's example, and shushined as well.

* * *

 _There was fire everywhere, both sides dead, floor soaked in blood. The fight was over, and there wasn't a single soul alive as he searched for any remaining survivors. The hokage was dead. His classmates from the academy had perished in the fire. The kids, who had been hiding with the women and children, were crushed by the collapsing of the caves. His home, once wanting to destroy it himself, was in ruins._

 _Landing, he found both Naruto and Sakura's bodies on the ground. Naruto had no pulse; his eyes were lifeless and he couldn't feel the presence of the nine tails within him. Looking at Sakura, he saw a faint glow in her hands for healing, but could tell it wouldn't be enough; she had been stabbed at the organs that were fatal._

 _His heart squeezed, and walked to her, lifting her head onto his lap. He couldn't do anything, and wasn't strong enough to help._

 _She had opened her eyes, and smiled; she always smiles at him._

 _He felt her place a hand on his cheek, and with his only arm, placed his hand on hers, "Shh, don't cry Sasuke-kun, this isn't your fault. We were just not prepared for this kind of ambush. I'm sorry that were leaving now that you've finally returned to us." Crying? He didn't even realize that the tears had been sliding down his face._

" _Sakura, I…" Sasuke began._

" _It's okay, I just want to say that even after all this time, I still lo…." Her hand went limp in his, and her eyes had closed off. She had died._

 _He squeezed her hand, hoping for a reaction, but nothing happened. The pain in his heart tightened ten-folds, "No! Wake up, dammit, wake up." He yelled out._

"No!" Sasuke quickly got up, sweat covering his face. He was breathing hard, and looked at his surroundings; he was in the hospital.

'The dream again, why am I dreaming this' this was the second time in two days that he had nightmares, and once again they were about the village being destroyed, and…Sakura dying in his arms before she could complete her sentence. 'Sakura' looking around him, he saw that she had fallen asleep with her head down on the bed next to his; her hand was in his, with his grip tight in hers.

He slowly pulled his hand away, but that seemed to have stirred her up from her own sleep.

"Sasuke-kun?" she tiredly mumbled, rubbing her eyes from the sleep.

"Sakura, why are you sleeping next to the bed?" Sasuke asked; he averted his eyes as the dream was still fresh in his mind.

Sakura sheepishly rubbed her head, a Naruto action, and explained, "Usually after a mission, ranked B and up, is completed, the ninja's are supposed to do a checkup at the hospital to make sure they are physically, and mentally alright. While you were sleeping, I thought I should give you an evaluation since it's probably been sometime since you had one done."

Sasuke grunted at this, making sense, but that didn't explain his question fully.

"But why were you sleeping?"

"I guess I was just as tired as you; after I concluded that you were fine, just exhausted, I felt my eyelids get heavy and put my head down to rest for a bit. Seems like I slept longer than I was hoping to" she turned away, looking embarrassed.

"Well, I'm glad the two of you have gotten your rest, because now I want answers" The two looked at the door to see Kakashi, along with Naruto, Hinata, and the two kids at the door.

They looked at each, got up, and walked towards Jiyuna's bed where the meeting would take place.

'I have a feeling that once she wakes up, she won't be able to get any decent sleep afterwards' Sakura thought.

She never thought how wrong she could be about that.

* * *

And that's a wrap

So the mystery for nightmares? Won't really be explaining those until much later in the Story.

The next one has some humor so I thought I may give you guys a bit of a preview. It's not the beginning of the chapter, but it's in there somewhere.

 _"Oi, Naruto-ni-san, what's with the sudden emergency mission; I was trying to practice the summoning justu Ojiisan left me" a sound behind the door was heard._

 _"Baka, keep it down, this is a hospital" Naruto's voice carried out._

 _"Baka, your being just as loud as he is" Sakura mumbled as Hinata giggled._

 _The doors opened, revealing Naruto, and a young teenager next to him: He had brown short hair, brown eyes, with long sideburns. His outfit consisted of a grey/black zip-up jacket, dark grey pants, shinobi sandals, and bandages around both his arms._

 _"Hokage-sama, what's with the urgent summoning for a mission?" The boy called Konohamaru asked._

 _"I have a guard mission for you that will be happening until further notice. It's A-ranked so you must take it serious as if the enemy gets them, the village may be taken advantage of" Kakashi stated._

 _His eyes lit up at this, and thumped his chest, "Alright I will do it, who's the client?"_

 _Kakashi just waved his hands towards the two kids standing. Konohamaru just blinked for a moment, then realized what the mission entitled, "What the hell? I thought you said it was A-rank, how could babysit brats be considered A-rank mission?" Konohamaru yelled out._

 _"Hey, I'm not a brat, fuzzy hair" Kushina yelled out, as Itachi face palmed, mumbling "another one" under his breath._

 _"What was that" Konohamaru yelled back._

And that's that.

Cheers


	15. Chapter 15

Hey everyone.

here's the next chapter for the story.

It's getting interesting

Enjoy

Don't own Naruto

* * *

Chapter 14

Feeling someone shaking my shoulder, I slowly open my eyes. It was a white ceiling before me, and faces around. Slowly rising up, I saw someone I hadn't seen before.

"Well, how are you feeling? It seems you've had quite a hectic couple of days if my report is anything to go by" the man, wearing a mask covering his nose and below, said.

"Sorry, who are you?" I asked.

"Maa, my manners, my name is Kakashi Hatake, the hokage of the hidden leaves" the man named Kakashi said.

Realizing who he is, I simply bowed, "It's a pleasure to meet you Hokage-sama."

"Now, now, none of that please. I've heard interesting things so far, and if what I've heard so far is true, then the honor is mine. Kakashi is fine Uzumaki-san" he said.

"Then, Jiyuna please Kakashi-sama" I said.

"Just Kakashi please; I always hated the politics for the name calling" Kakashi grumbled out.

I let a small smile appear on my face; seems Itachi was right; the hokages here are kind souls.

"Now, onto the matter at hand" Kakashi began.

"Wait….before that, could you somehow" I made a movement towards my kids, and his eyes showed he understood what was being asked.

"Of course, Naruto, please bring Konohamaru here. I have a mission for him that came up right now" he said.

"Hai" Naruto quickly left to find this Konohamaru person.

"Kaa-san, I'm hungry" Kushina said.

"Please be patient Kushina-chan, you'll get something to eat shortly. Any places of recommending for meals?" I asked the shinobi in the room.

"Well, there's a ramen stand that I frequently would visit before becoming hokage" Kakashi began.

"Don't tell her for meals that are unhealthy, there still growing children" Sakura scolded Kakashi.

"Ano, there's a nice café not too far away from the academy" Hinata suggested.

"…." Sasuke just remained quiet, looking a little bit uncomfortable about the subject.

"Oi, Naruto-ni-san, what's with the sudden emergency mission; I was trying to practice the summoning justu Ojiisan left me" a sound behind the door was heard.

"Baka, keep it down, this is a hospital" Naruto's voice carried out.

"Baka, your being just as loud as he is" Sakura mumbled as Hinata giggled.

The doors opened, revealing Naruto, and a young teenager next to him: He had brown short hair, brown eyes, with long sideburns. His outfit consisted of a grey/black zip-up jacket, dark grey pants, shinobi sandals, and bandages around both his arms.

"Hokage-sama, what's with the urgent summoning for a mission?" The boy called Konohamaru asked.

"I have a guard mission for you that will be required until further notice. It's an A-rank mission so you must take it serious; if the enemy gets them, the village may be taken advantage of" Kakashi stated.

His eyes lit up at this, and thumped his chest, "Aright, I will do it. Who's the client?"

Kakashi just waved his hands towards the two kids standing. Konohamaru just blinked for a moment, then realized what the mission entitled, "What the hell? I thought you said it was A-rank; how could babysit brats be considered an A-rank mission?" Konohamaru yelled out.

"Hey, I'm not a brat, fuzzy hair" Kushina yelled back, as Itachi face palmed, mumbling "another one" under his breath.

"What was that" Konohamaru yelled back.

Naruto punched Konohamaru on the head, "Baka, I said were in a hospital."

While Konohamaru rubbed his head from the punch, Kakashi took this time to explain things before another yell about occurred, "As I was saying, this is an A-rank mission until further notice, and it is a guard mission, not babysitting. I will be informing you of the details later on, but for now I need you to look after them while a meeting takes place. I will send Naruto to find you once were done here" Kakashi stated with a firm voice that told that was his order.

Mumbling at the unfairness of it all, he opened the door, "Fine. You two, come on, I don't have all day."

Itachi just grabbed his sister before she could cause a scene, and walked out the door, with Konohamaru shutting the door.

"Now that has been taken care of, may we begin?" Kakashi said back in his lazy voice.

"Hai, it all began with the destruction of my village" and Jiyuna began to talk again what she told back at her house.

* * *

"So unfair, and I was practicing my summoning as well" Konohamaru continued to mumble as he followed the kids around. Ever since the war ended, there wasn't that much exciting missions, and therefore, had plenty of time to train. He finally had gotten his uncles fire justu down, along with making the rasangan bigger. Now he was practicing the hand signs for summoning, trying to improve the speed, before actually doing the summoning itself. He learned that summoning required a lot of chakra; therefore, he would physically train with Rock Lee early in the mornings to improve his stamina.

"Kusi, cut it out" Konohamaru turned his head to hear the boy scold his little sister.

"But, ni-san, I'm hungry!" The girl yelled back.

Now taking a good look at the two, he realized that the girl was barely an actual kid from her appearance, and the boy was more behaved then what he first thought.

'Well, I guess I'm getting kind of hungry too, might as well' sighing, he smiled, "hey, I'm getting kind of hungry too, how about we go get some ramen to eat; my treat?"

It looked like the boy wanted to say something, but a sound came from his stomach indicating that he was hungry; he nodded.

"Great, I'll lead the way" Konohamaru began walking to their destination.

"Can you carry me on your shoulders?"

"No"

"Fuzzy hair"

"Oi"

He heard the boy sigh in the background.

* * *

"….How is that possible?" Kakashi asked. He never imagined in all his life that such a thing could happen.

"I truly don't know, but once I declined, he tried to get rid of me in order to not warn you guys. I don't know when the invasion is planning to take place, only it's going to happen soon" Jiyuna said.

"Well, our I.T. is still currently working on the prisoners that were captured; perhaps we can get a date out of them, but the autopsy hasn't had much luck" Kakashi answered.

"I wasn't given a full scale of his plans; he was cautious in case I refused, only gave me the brief of his plan" she explained.

Nodding, Kakashi stared at her for a second, before coming to a decision to ask, "Jiyuna, how long have you been alone for?" That surprised her, along everyone in the room.

"What you mean?" She asked, unsure of the question.

"Well, it seems only you and the kids live alone; were you with others before?"

"My Kaa-san died when I was nine years old. I met Itachi when I was eleven. So two years."

"Anyone else besides Itachi?" Kakashi continued to push.

"People here and there, but I mostly never met them except once; since I never belonged anywhere, so I would just constantly travel from one location to another, mostly camping outdoors. At some point my name got into a bingo book when I was fourteen; I think it was because I was with Itachi at that time, so ninja's may have thought I was his accomplice" she explained.

Nodding, Kakashi made a gesture for the four to leave the room, "Thank you, I'll ask for someone to bring you some food while you rest up a bit more. I'll send someone to get you in the evening once we figure out where to let you stay in your stay at Konoha"

"Thank you Kakashi, you truly are kind" he just waved his hand at that as he closed the door.

Jiyuna felt like maybe a bit more sleep wouldn't hurt, since she wasn't feeling all that hungry yet; she hated the medication that was causing her to feel tired.

* * *

Once he closed the door, Kakashi motioned the four to follow him.

"Kakashi-sensei, what was with those personal questions about before?" Naruto asked.

"I'll explain once were back at my office; I don't wish the public to know as of yet, but I feel there is something that requires investigating, and only you four will be aware of this part; I'll tell Konohamaru afterwards about the real reason for guarding the kids, but only you four will know this part of the story" kakashi said.

"Investigating" Naruto said, narrowing his eyes.

"Don't come up with your own conclusions Naruto. I'll explain fully once we reach the tower" Kakashi said.

Nodding, the group made their way back into the tower. Motioning for the anbu to not let anyone in, then activating a seal to prevent anyone from hearing what would be said in the room, Kakashi began, "I am so glad Tsunade-sama agreed to be on the advisor seat; I don't think I would be able to figure out how to handle dealing with the invasion if she weren't."

"If you believe her, then why the investigation" Naruto began.

"The investigation will be about something else. Put that on hold for now, there's something I need to share based on what information the I.T. had gotten so far. Ino stated that what she saw was a room, with twelve people sitting in it. It was a meeting room. The man, who Jiyuna told us about, had white hair, with a walking sticking, and a red bulb on top. She said it sounded mumbled the conversation, but something about an invasion was being talked about. A map was shown in said room, and a circle on the map was the leaf village. What Jiyuna confirms is that there is indeed a plan taking place for an invasion, and it also confirms that she isn't lying. The fact that the ten dead men were killed by her shows she's in no part of the plan" Kakashi explained

"More on the fact that the three men that was recently captured stated that their goal was to kill her only tells me that she is indeed telling the truth. Don't worry; I have full belief that she is not an enemy of the village. It's something more personal that has me concerned" Kakashi finished.

"The questions?" Naruto confirmed.

"Yes, earlier her son stated that he wished for her to finally accept help of others. It leads me to believe that she's spent the majority of her life in solitude. When I asked, all she mentioned was her Kaa-san, then Itachi, but no one else. Sasuke, did she mention how her relationship was with Itachi?" Kakashi asked.

"She called me her brother-in-law" Sasuke answered.

"I would think it would be obvious seeing she has kids" Naruto said aloud.

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded.

"What?" Naruto looked confused.

"Ano, she mentioned that the two were lovers" Hinata said

Rubbing his temples, he decided to go with the blunt explanation, "I believe because of her solitude, she may be repressing some memories of her own, and since were unsure of the emotional part of her relationship with Itachi, she may be burdening herself self-consciously."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at this; whenever a topic about his ni-san takes place, it still would be a bit of a sore subject, "Explain."

Kakashi waved his hand at the accusation in Sasukes voice, "now, Sasuke, everyone in this room knows the truth of your brother, along those who found out during the war. That being said, your brother was just as emotionally pained as you were on that day, and since she said she met him when he was thirteen, I'm not sure if it was before, or after the massacre."

Seeing that his posture hadn't changed, Kakashi continued, "look, it has nothing to do with whose fault it is, but the fact is that he was indeed affected by it afterwards, so I'm uncertain of why he chose to get into a relationship. Itachi, in most ways, was like Minato, who never did anything without a reason. Itachi worked hard to make sure everyone, including you, believed he was heartless rouge that cared for nothing but power. Yet, he told everything to Jiyuna. I want to know why."

Sasuke hated to admit it, but there was truth to what he was saying; Itachi never did anything without reason, why did he confide in Jiyuna?

Seeing that Sasuke had calmed down, Kakashi finally stated what his plan was in terms of the investigation, "I want Ibiki to take a look at her" waiting for the outbreak that was to take place.

A moment of silence had taken place.

Then…

"Nani?!" All four yelled in unison.

"Let me explain….."

"Kakashi sensei, you already said she wasn't an enemy" Sasuke said with an edge to his voice.

"It's not about…."

"You can't torture her just because of that" Naruto yelled out.

"Are you going to keep making your own assumptions, or are you going to let me continue" Kakashi rasied his voice, finally losing his patience.

Seeing that everyone had gone quiet, he proceeds, "it seems you have a misunderstanding on what Ibiki does. Let me explain. As you all know, Ibiki is a master of interrogation both physically and psychologically. He has the ability to subject people to great suffering without ever using physical torture. He has complete knowledge of human psychology; by attacking a person's mind, he can gain control over their spirit. Now that being said, because of all this skill, the same could be with helping a person psychologically recover after a traumatic event in their lives. He can help a person recover what they've repressed, and help a person make peace with themselves. I simply wish for Ibiki to talk to her, and truly understand her relationship with Itachi and her kids. If you look 'underneath the underneath', you can see a shadow behind those eyes of hers" Kakashi finished.

The office was quiet for a few minutes, and then the question everyone wanted to know was asked.

"What do you want Ibiki to do?" Sakura asked the question.

Kakashi smiled at this; it almost makes him feel like he was teaching his students something new, "I want Ibiki…to listen to her"

* * *

And that's that. I got the idea from the story 'White rain'. for the Ibiki thing.

Next chapter should be interesting

Cheers


	16. Chapter 16

Hey guys

I'm sorry for being late, Unlike yesterday, I have no excuse for today.

Here's the next chapter, and I'm going to try to involve Konohamaru a bit more into the story. He will be necessary just like he was in canon.

Hope you enjoy, Although I don't have that many reviews, I'm happy with the feedback they've given me

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Chapter 15

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

Everyone seemed to be stunned by that. After the whole explanation of letting Ibiki work with Jiyuna, all four of them expected something more intense.

"Okay, it doesn't make sense, but listening seems to be fine, especially since you said it wasn't an interrogation" Naruto finally responds.

"Good, now Naruto, I wish for you to find Konohamaru. The rest of you are dismissed for the day. Sasuke, your apartment that you were in before traveling your two year trip is still available to you if you wish it. Sakura, I know you want to return to the hospital, but she just needs rest. Just go home and sleep; tomorrow I want all four of you at the hospital so we can discuss where to place her and her kids. I don't think living in the hospital will do her any favours" Kakashi said.

"Will the kids be staying with her tonight then?" Hinata asked.

"Hmmm, well we can't simply leave them there. Sasuke, I know you're not much of a social person, but since there use to you, perhaps they can stay with you tonight? I know Hinata has more room, but we are trying to keep this quiet for now" Kakashi asks.

Sighing, Sasuke nods in agreement.

"Alright, the four of you are dismissed" and with that, all four of them shushin out of the hospital.

'Why do I bother having a door there' Kakashi thought.

* * *

"Summoning justu" Konohamaru yelled out, revealing a small monkey in its presence.

"Damn, still didn't work" Konohamaru was panting. After he and the kids had gotten something to eat, they came with him to the training grounds; he had been explaining to them during lunch of what he had been doing before coming to the hospital. The boy had been quiet and listened without interrupting, but that might have been because the girl couldn't help but ask a question every five seconds.

"Perhaps it's time for a break Konohamaru-ni-san. You look like your about to collapse" the boy said. The girl had fallen asleep at some point leaning on the tree.

"Yeah, you're right about that" he walked towards the boy and sits down. It was sunny with a slight wind, causing a bit of his hair to flutter.

A water canteen was being passed onto him by the boy, "here, drink up."

"Thanks" Konohamaru started to take large gulps of it. Afterwards, he passed it back to him.

"Thanks kid. How's your sister by the way? She seems rather exhausted" Konohamaru said.

"She is. Kusi hasn't been getting the amount of sleep she's use to, so it was inevitable she was going to succumb to fatigue" they boy said.

"Kusi huh, who named her that?" Konohamaru asked.

"Her name is actually Kushina, but the nickname just seemed to stick, so I call her that" the boy explained.

"Come to think of it, I never really asked for your names. Pretty stupid I guess. You know my name, but my full name is Konohamaru Sarutobi. What's yours?"

"Itachi Uzumaki Uchiha. My sister's name is Kushina Uzumaki Uchiha" Itachi introduced himself.

Konohamaru stiffened at that; Uchiha? Uzuamki? What the hell, he only knew Naruto and Sasuke with those last names.

Itachi seemed to pick up on his tension, so he decided to explain, "Yes, I know what you're thinking. My tou-san was Itachi Uchiha and my kaa-san is Jiyuna Uzumaki. They are our parents. Sasuke-oji is my tou-sans brother, and Naruto-oji is a distant relative of my kaa-san. I didn't really know there was still family out there."

Now this really got Konohamaru's mind reeling; based on what Naruto told him, Itachi had been a good guy, just with hard decisions to make. If this was his son, then he wondered about something else.

"Do you have the sharingan by any chance?" Konohamaru asked.

Instead of answering, Itachi just activated eyes, showing two tomoes in each eye.

"Cool, I think you're the youngest one here to have them activated" Konohamaru said.

"I've had them activated since I was five" Itachi says.

This had Konohamaru bug eyeing him; five!

"Hey, I have an idea; do you want to spar with me. I am still a little tired, but I need a break with all this summoning. You can use your eyes on me if you want while we spar" Konohamaru says.

Itachi brightens up at that, "Really, because I've been feeling tense for a while. I know that there is some bigger picture that the grownups refuse to explain to me, but even I can tell when a fights going to ensure"

Konohamaru hadn't been informed yet of what was going on, so he figured that the boy really needed to let out some steam, "well, I'm not sure what's happening as of yet, but if you need to release some steam, I'm all for it" and with that, the two got up, and headed towards the middle of the training field, stances in place.

'I wonder how good he is' Konohamaru thinks as Itachi dashed towards him. He found that he was looking forward to it.

* * *

"That's quite a lot to take in" Naruto says out loud as the four headed towards the training grounds. Earlier, Naruto had used sage mode to locate Konohamaru and the kids, and they decided to just walk instead of run in order to get their thoughts in order.

"I'm still not too comfortable with Kakashi sensei's idea. I know he really meant it when he said that all he would get Ibiki to do was listen, but what if somewhere down the line he indirectly hurts her" Sakura voiced out.

"I know what you mean Sakura-chan, but Ibiki also knows how to be professional with his work. If Kakashi-sensei thought there was any danger in having the two interact, I don't think that he would have suggested it" Naruto responds, placing his hands behind his head.

"Sasuke-kun, do you require anything to accommodate the kids being placed at your place tonight?" Sakura asks.

Sasuke, who had been quiet throughout the conversation, looked at Sakura; he actually hadn't really thought of it.

"…I'm not sure" Sasuke says.

"Ano, if you want Sasuke-san, me and Sakura could come over and see if you require anything; Naruto-kun will get them so we'll have to sort this out right away" Hinata suggested.

Sasuke paused at this; he really didn't like people interfering in his private life, but the truth is he hadn't been to his apartment since his departure two years ago. Surely there was a bit of dust growing there.

"Fine" he sighed. He figured the two would be better at it then him since Sakura was a medic, and Hinata had a big family and a little sister. Why did Kakashi want him to look after the kids again?

"Alright then, Naruto, go ahead and get Konohamaru-kun, but don't be quick about it; give us at least half an hour before leaving from the training grounds. Me and Hinata will help Sasuke-kun get his place ready for the kids" Sakura said.

Naruto nodded at this, and began running to the training grounds. Sakura turned her head to look at Sasuke, who seemed to be staring at her; he's been doing that a lot lately.

"Lead the way Sasuke-kun" Sakura says. This snaps Sasuke to look directly into her eyes, before giving off a light 'hn' before turning towards a different route, motioning for the two girls to follow.

* * *

"I must admit, those eyes are really useful when it comes to reading my movements, but tell me Itachi-chan, what's the point of them if your body can't follow your eyes" Konohamaru says as he increases his speed, punching Itachi on the side with only a quarter of his strength. It was enough though to push Itachi off to the side, making him land on his side.

"Urg, I never really thought of it this way; looks like if I don't improve my speed then Taijustu fights will become disadvantageous to me" Itachi says as he gets back on his feet. So far the fight had only been in Taijustu. Konohamaru had made sure to keep his pace slow to match Itachi's. Itachi was rather good for his age, and those eyes gave him an advantage. But if there was one thing he knew it was no matter how good those eyes were, if the body can't follow then your setting yourself up for defeat.

Konohamaru had an idea come to him, "Say, Itachi, what Ninjustu do you know?"

"Well, whatever I had copied with my eyes. I never attempted them though" Itachi responds back.

"Well, listen. All Uchiha's in the past would master the fire ball Justu. I don't mind showing you the hand signs for the justu. Just make sure you only practice the hand signs, and next time we meet we'll do the actual justu; we need to be near water so the forest doesn't get burned up" Konohamaru says.

Nodding, Itachi activates his eyes and looks at Konohamaru's hands, "Okay, the hand signs are: Tiger, Monkey, Boar, Horse, and Tiger" Konohamaru shows them in small motions, "My clan also uses fire justu, so it's natural for me to learn this, even though my natural affinity is wind. I'm just like my uncle it seems" a look appears on his face.

Itachi didn't know what that look was about, so he didn't bother to ask. He just positioned himself in the middle of the ground where he and Konohamaru had been sparing earlier, and slowly did the hand signs. Since he hadn't done any hand signs before, it was a little hard to place his hands in the right form. He tried to go as fast as possible, but when he realized that it would be less productive, he went as slow as possible until he was satisfied with the speed, and then tried to go faster.

Konohamaru sat back down as he watched Itachi make the hand signs; it felt nice to teach someone the way Naruto had taught him. Eventually though, while Itachi was doing the hand signs, he had dowsed off.

What felt like only a few minutes of sleep, he felt himself being shaken up, "Konohamaru-ni-san, Naruto-oji is here; he says the hokage wishes to meet with you" it sounded like Itachi.

Groaning, he got up to see that Naruto was indeed there, with Kushina hopping up and down in front of him.

"Naruto-oji, can we play now; fuzzy hair is boring. All he was doing was making monkeys appear and disappear" Kushina complained.

He sighed at that; that fuzzy hair nickname had stuck even after he had told her his name.

"We'll play later. I need to take you two to Sasuke's house. You will be staying there until tomorrow. Come on Konohamaru; after we drop them off, the hokage wishes to explain to you the situation" Naruto said.

Konohamaru grabs his things, and walks up to Naruto, Itachi following him.

"Fuzzy hair, can you carry me on your shoulder?" Kushina asks.

"For the last time it's Konohamaru, and no I will not!" He exclaims.

"Meanie" and Kushina clings onto Naruto.

"Here Kushina" Naruto picks Kushina, and places her on his shoulders.

"Yay" she squeals out.

"Why does she keep calling me that" Konohamaru asks Itachi; he feels like Itachi is older than what his age shows from how he talks.

"It's honestly her way of saying she likes you. She acted a similar way with both Sasuke-oji, and Naruto-oji before acting 'normally' to them" Itachi explains.

This just surprises and confuses Konohamaru even more.

"Alright guys, follow me" Naruto begins to run to a direction away from Sasukes house, with Konohamaru and Itachi following after him.

* * *

"I forgot that your house barely has much since you only stayed a month there before traveling; the dust isn't as bad as I thought it would be though" Sakura says. As soon as they had gotten to Sasukes apartment, the three realized that open windows, and some cleaning were necessary. Fortunately, Sasuke had learned the shadow clone jutsu, thus had several help while Hinata had quickly gone to her place to retrieve mattresses and blankets for the kids to sleep on for the night.

"I think after they decide where to sleep, we should take them out for dinner; nothing in your house is edible" and it was true. Two years away has made anything in the house rotten and expired.

"I think that would be the best, however I don't like the idea of sitting alone with them; the girl especially reminds me a little too much of Naruto" Sasuke comments, causing Sakura to giggle a bit.

"Well, how about all of us go out for dinner then with them: you, me, Hinata, and Naruto. I'm sure the kids won't mind since they are used to our presence for the past few days" Sakura says.

Sauske is about to answer, but Hinata talks first, "ano, it sounds like a good idea. Perhaps we can go to a more private place so rumors don't spread out about them."

Sasuke had to admit that it sounded quite plausible; he wasn't ready to announce his return in public yet either.

"Well, that is actually smart Hinata, let me finish with Konohamaru and Kakashi-sensei before we go out" all three turned their heads to see Naruto at the door, with Kushina sitting on his shoulders, and Itachi behind Konohamaru.

"Alright then Naruto, while you two talk with him, we'll get the kids ready" nodding, Naruto places Kushina down, much to her dismay, and tells them to listen to the three of them before leaving with Konohamaru following.

All of them are silent for a few minutes, not sure how to begin, until Kushina starts, "Where's the washroom, I really need to go!"

* * *

Haha, I just had to add that, because an Uzumaki seems to be able to break tensions no matter what.

Hope it was good.

Cheers guys


	17. Chapter 17

Authors note

Hey everyone

First off I wish to thank everyone who kept reading this story, and who would review it.

I also would like to apologize for putting the story on hold.

I stopped posting awhile because I wanted to figure out why out of all my stories, this was doing the worst.

Least reviews, least favourites, least follows, and least traffic.

I've decided to reread my story, edit my work, and actually finish it before I continue to post the stories.

There's a good chance I may delete the story and start it over again with a new title

If that happens, I will let you guys have a week's heads up before posting again.

Once again I thank you all, and I'm sorry for having it on hold.


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